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S^;. 


_7?g^3jD^ 


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SHAMASH   THE    SUN -GOD. 
(From  the  Sun  Temple  at  Sippar.) 


Ijiy  Htorg  of  the  Wations 


THE 

STORY   OF   CHALDEA 


FROM    THE   EARLIEST   TIMES    TO    THE    RISE 
OF  ASSYRIA 


(treated  as  a  general  introduction  to  the  study  of 

ANCIENT    history) 


BY 

ZENAIDE  A.  RAGOZIN 

MEMBER  OF  THE    "  SOCIETE    ETHNOLOGIQUE  "    OF    PARIS;   CORRESPONDING   MEMBER 
OF  THE    "  ATHENEE    ORIENTAL  "    OF    PARIS. 


'•  He  (Carlyle)  says  it  is  part  of  his  creed   that  history  is  poetry,  could   we 
tell  it  right.    — Emerson. 

"  Da  mihi,  Domine,  scire  quod  sciendum  est." — "  Imitation  ok  Christ."  __ 
{^^  Gratit  that  the  knowledge  I  get  may  be  the  knowledge  worth  having."— 

Matthew  Atnold^s  translation.) 


NEW  YORK  &  LONDON 

G.    P.    PUTN  AIM'S    SONS 
Clic  Knirttcibocfecr  ^aicss 


Copyright 

By  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

1886 


Press  of 

G.  )'.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York 


TO   THE    MEMBERS   OF 

THE  CLASS, 

IN    LOVING    REMEMBRANCE     OF     MANY    HAPPY    HOURS,    THIS 
VOLUME    AND    THE    FOLLOWING    ONES    ARE    AFFEC- 
TIONATELY INSCRIBED   BY  THEIR  FRIEND, 


The  Authur. 


Idlewild  Plantation, 

San  Antonio,  Dccctnber,  1S85. 


891506 


CLASSIFIED    CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 
I. 


Mesopotamia. — The      Mounds. — The      First 

Searchers  ......         1-18 

§  I.  Complete  destruction  of  Nineveh. — §§  2-4.  Xenophon 
and  the  "  Retreat  of  the  Ten  Thousand."  The  Greeks  pass 
the  ruins  of  Calah  and  Nineveh,  and  know  them  not. — 
§  5.  Alexander's  passage  through  Mesopotamia. — §  6.  The 
Arab  invasion  and  rule. — §  7.  Turkish  rule  and  mismanage- 
ment.— §  8.  Peculiar  natural  conditions  of  Mesopotamia. — 
§  9.  Actual  desolate  state  of  the  country. — §  10.  The  plains 
studded  with  Mounds.  Their  curious  aspect. — §  11.  Frag- 
ments of  works  of  art  amidst  the  rubbish. — §  12.  Indiffer- 
ence and  superstition  of  the  Turks  and  Arabs. — §  13.  Exxlu- 
sive  absorption  of  European  scholars  in  Classical  Antiquity. 
— §  14.  Forbidding  asjject  of  the  Mounds,  compared  with 
other  ruins. — §  15.  Rich,  the  first  explorer. — §  16.  Botta's 
work  and  want  of  success. — §  17.  Botta's  great  discovery. 
— §  18.  Great  sensation  created  by  it. — §  19.  Layard's  first 
expedition. 

II. 

La  YARD  AND  HIS  WORK 19-35 

§  I.  Layard's  arrival  at  Nimrud.  His  excitement  and 
dreams. — §  2.  Beginning  of  difficulties.  The  Ogre-like 
Pasha  of  ^^ossul. — §  3.  Opposition  from  the  Pasha.  His 
malice  and  cunning. — §  4.  Discovery  of  the  gigantic  head. 
V 


Vi  CLASSIFIED  COXTEA'TS. 

TAGE 

Fright  of  the  Arabs,  who  declare  it  to  be  Ninirod.^-§  5. 
Strange  ideas  of  the  Arabs  about  the  sculptures. — §  6.  Lay- 
ard's  life  in  the  desert. — §  7.  Terrible  heat  of  summer. — §  S. 
Sand-storms  and  hot  hurricanes. — §  9.  Layard's  wretched 
dwelling. — §  10.  Unsuccessful  attempts  at  improvement. — 
§  II.  In  what  the  task  of  the  explorer  consists. — §  12.  Dif- 
ferent modes  of  carrying  on  the  work  of  e.\cavation. 

III. 

The  Ruins 36-90 

§  I.  Every  country's  culture  and  art  determined  by  its  geo- 
graphical conditions — §  2  Chaldea's  absolute  deficiency  in 
wood  and  stone. — §  3.  Great  abundance  of  mud  fit  for  the 
fabrication  of  bricks ;  hence  the  peculiar  architecture  of 
Mesopotamia.  Ancient  ruins  still  used  as  quarries  of  bricks 
for  building.  Trade  of  ancient  bricks  at  Hillah. — §4.  Vari- 
ous cements  used. — §  5.  Construction  of  artificial  platforms. 
— §  6.  Ruins  of  Ziggurats :  peculiar  shape  and  uses  of  this 
sort  of  buildings. — §  7.  Figures  showing  the  immense  amount 
of  labor  used  on  these  constructions. — §  8.  Chaldean  archi- 
tecture adopted  unchanged  by  the  Assyrians. — §  9.  Stone 
used  for  ornament  and  casing  of  walls.  Water  transport  in 
old  and  modern  times. — §  10.  Imposing  aspect  of  the  palaces. 
— §  II.  Restoration  of  Sennacherib's  palace  by  Fergusson. 
— §  12.  Pavements  of  palace  halls. — §  13.  Gateways  and 
sculptured  slabs  along  the  walls.  Friezes  in  painted  tiles. 
— §  14.  Proportions  of  palace  halls  and  roofing.— §  15. 
Lighting  of  halls. — §  16.  Causes  of  the  kings'  passion  for 
building. — §  17.  Drainage  of  palaces  and  platforms. — §  18. 
Modes  of  destruction.— §  19.  The  Mounds  a  protection  to 
the  ruins  they  contain.  Refilling  the  excavations. — §  20. 
Absence  of  ancient  tombs  in  Assyria. — §  21.  Abundance  and 
vastness  of  cemeteries  in  Chaldea. — §  22.  Warka  (Erech) 
the  great  Necropolis.  Loftus'  description. — §  23.  "Jar-cof- 
fins,"— §  24.  "Dish-cover"  cofifins. — §25.  Sepulchral  vaults. 
— §  26.  "Slipper-shaped"  coffins.— §  27.  Drainage  of  sepul- 
chral mounds. — §  28.  Decoration  of  walls  in  painted  clay 
cones. — §  29.  De  Sarzec's  discoveries  at  Tell-Loh. 


CLASSIFIED  CONTENTS.  vii 


IV. 

PAGE 

The    Book:   of   the   Past.— The   Library    of 

Nineveh  92-115 

§  I.  Object  of  making  books.— §  2.  Books  not  always  of 
paper.— §  3.  Universal  craving  for  an  immortal  name,— §  4. 
Insufficiency  of  records  on  various  writing  materials.  Uni- 
versal longing  for  knowledge  of  the  remotest  past.— §  5. 
Monumental  records.— §  6.  Ruins  of  palaces  and  temples, 
tombs  and  caves— the  Book  of  the  Past.— §§  7-8.  Discov- 
ery by  Layard  of  the  Royal  Library  at  Nineveh.— §  9.  George 
Smith's  work  at  the  British  Museum.— §  10.  His  expeditions 
to  Nineveh,  his  success  and  death.— §  11.  Value  of  the  Li- 
'  brary.— §§  12-13.  Contents  of  the  Library.— §  14.  The 
Tablets.— §  15.  The  cylinders  and  foundation-tablets. 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 
I. 

Nomads  and  Settlers.— The  Four  Stages  of 

Culture 1 16-126 

§  I.  Nomads.— §  2.  First  migrations.— §  3.  Pastoral  life— 
the  second  stage.— §  4-  Agricultural  life  ;  beginnings  of  the 
State.— §5.  City-building;  royalty.— §  6.  Successive  migra- 
tions and  theircauses.— §  7.  Formation  of  nations. 

IL 
The  Great  Races.— Chapter  X.  of  Genesis  127-142 
§  I.  Shinar.— §  2.  Berosus.— §  3.  Who  were  the  settlers  in 
Shinar  ?— §  4.  The  Flood  probably  not  universal.— §§  5-6. 
The  blessed  race  and  the  accursed,  according  to  Genesis.— 
§7.  Genealogical  form  of  Chap.  X.  of  Genesis.— §  8.  Epo- 
nyms.— §  9.  Omission  of  some  white  races  from  Chap.  X. 
— §10.  Omission  of  the  Black  Race.— §  n.  Omission  of 
the  Yellow  Race,     Characteristics  of  the  Turanians.— §  12. 


yiii  CLASSIFIED  COXTENTS. 

TACK 

The  Chinese. — §  13.  Who  were  the  Turanians?  What  be- 
came of  the  Cainites  ? — §  14.  Possible  identity  of  both. — 
§  15.  The  settlers  in  Shinar — Turanians. 

III. 

Turanian   Chaldea. — Shumir   and    Accad. — 

The  Beginnings  OF  Religion         .         146-181 

§  I.  Shumir  and  Accad. — §  2.  Language  and  name. — §  3. 
Turanian  migrations  and  traditions. — §  4.  Collection  of 
sacred  te.xts. — §  5.  "  Religiosity  " — a  distinctively  human 
characteristic.  Its  first  promptings  and  manifestations. — 
§6.  The  Magic  Collection  and  the  work  of  Fr.  I.enormant. 
— §  7.  The  Shumiro-Accads'  theory  of  the  world,  and  their 
elementary  spirits. — §8.  The  incantation  of  the  Seven  Mas- 
kim. — §9.  The  evil  spirits. — §  10.  The  Arali. — §  11.  The 
sorcerers. — §  12.  Conjuring  and  conjurers. — §13.  The  benef- 
icent Spirits.  Ea. — §14.  Meridug. — §15.  A  charm  against 
an  evil  spell. — §  16.  Diseases  considered  as  evil  demons. — 
§  17.  Talismans.  The  Keiubim. — §  18.  More  talismans. — 
§  19.  The  demon  of  the  South- West  Wind.— §  20.  The  first 
gods. — §21.  Ud,\h&  Sun. — §22.  Nin  «'<?;■,  the  nightly  Sun. 
— §  23.  Gibil,  Fire. — §  24.  Dawn  of  moral  consciousness. — 
§  25.  Man's  Conscience  divinized. — §§  26-2S.  Penitential 
Psalms. — §  29.  General  character  of  Turanian  religions. 

Appendix  to  Chapter  III 181-183 

Professor  L.  Dyer's  poetical  version  of  the  Incantation 
against  the  Seven  Maskim. 

IV. 

Cushites    and     Semites. — Early     Chaldean 

History 184-228 

§  I.  Cannes. — §2.  Were  the  second  settlers  Cushites  or 
Semites  ? — §  3.  Cushite  hypothesis.  Earliest  migrations. — 
§  4.  The  Ethiopians  and  the  Egyptians. — §  5.  The  Canaan- 
ites.— §  6.  Possible  Cushite  station  on  the  islets  of  the  Per- 
sian Gulf. — §  7.  Colonization  of  Chaldea  possibly  by  Cush- 
ites.— §  8.  Vagueness  of  very  ancient  chronology. — §  9,  Early 
dates. — §  10.  Exorbitant   figures    of    Berosus. — §   11.  Early 


CLASSIFIED  CONTENTS. 


IX 


I'AflK 

Chaldea — a  nursery  of  nations. — §  12.  Nomadic  Semitic 
tribes. — §  13.  The  tribe  of  Arphaxad. — §  14.  Ur  of  the  Chal- 
dees. — §  15.  Scholars  divided  between  the  Cushite  and  Se- 
mitic theories. — §  16.  History  commences  with  Semitic  cul- 
ture.—§  17.  Priestly  rule.  i:\\^  fatesis.—%%  18-19.  Sharrukin. 
Sargon  of  Agade.— §§  20-21.  Sargon's  literary  labors.— §§ 
22-23.  Chaldean  Folk-lore,  Maxims  and  Songs. — §  24.  Dis- 
covery of  Sargon's  date — 3S00  B.C. — §  25.  Gudea  of  Sirbula 
and  Ur-ea  of  Ur. — §  26.  Predominance  of  Shumir.  Ur-ea 
and  his  son  Dungi  first  kings  of  "  Shumir  and  Accad." — 
§  27.  Their  inscriptions  and  buildings.  The  Elamite  inva- 
sion.— §  28.  Elam. — §§  29-31.  Khudur-Lagamar  and  Abra- 
ham.— §  32.  Hardness  of  the  Elamite  rule. — §  33.  Rise  of 
Babylon. — §  34.  Hammurabi. — §  35.  Invasion  of  the  Kasshi. 

V. 
Babylonian  Religion  ....         229-2^7 

§  I.  Babylonian  calendar. — §  2.  Astronomy  conducive  to  re- 
-Jigious  feeling.— §  3.  Sabeism.— §  4.  Priestcraft  and  astrol- 
ogy.— §  5.  Transformation  of  the  old  religion. — §  6.  Vague 
dawning  of  the  monotheistic  idea.  Divine  emanations. — §  7. 
The  Supreme  Triad.— §  8.  The  Second  Triad.— §  9.  The 
five  Planetary  deities.— §§  lo-ii.  Duality  of  nature.  Mascu- 
line and  feminine  principles.  The  goddesses. — §  12.  The 
twelve  Great  Gods  and  their  Temples  — §  13.  The  temple  of 
Shamashat  Sippar  and  Mr.  Rassam's  discovery.— §  14.  Sur- 
vival of  the  old  Turanian  superstitions. — §  15.  Divination,  a 
branch  of  Chaldean  "  Science."— §§  16-17.  Collection  of  one 
hundred  tablets  on  divination.  Specmiens  — §  18.  The  three 
classes  of  "  wise  men."  "  Chaldeans,"  in  later  times,  a  by- 
word for  "magician,"  and  "  astrologer."— §  19.  Our  inherit- 
ance from  the  Chaldeans :  the  sun-dial,  the  week,  the  calen- 
dar, the  Sabbath. 

VI. 
Legends  and  Stories  ....         2^8-293 

§  I.  The  Cosmogonies  of  different  nations.— §  2.  The  antiq- 
uity of  the  Sacred  Books  of  Babylonia.— §  3.  The  legend  of 
Cannes,  told  by  Berosus.     Discovery,  by  Geo.  Smith,  of  the 


X  CLASSIFIED  CONTENTS. 

PACF 

Creation  Tablets  and  the  Deluge  Tablet. — §§  4-5.  Chaldean 
account  of  the  Creation. — §  6.  The  Cylinder  with  the  human 
couple,  tree  and  serpent. — §  7.  Berosus'  account  of  the  crea- 
tion.— §  8.  The  Sacred  Tree.  Sacredness  of  the  Symbol. — 
§  9.  Signification  of  the  Tree-Symbol.  The  Cosmic  Tree. — 
§  10.  Connection  of  the  Tree-Symbol  and  of  Ziggurats  with 
the  legend  of  Paradise. — §  11.  The  Ziggurat  of  Horsippa. — 
§  12. — It  is  identified  with  the  Tower  of  Babel. — §§  13-14. 
Peculiar  Orientation  of  the  Ziggurats. — §  15.  Traces  of  le- 
gends about  a  sacred  grove  or  garden. — §  16.  Mummu-Tia- 
mat,  the  enemy  of  the  gods.  Battle  of  Bel  and  Tiamat. — 
§  17.  The  Rebellion  of  the  seven  evil  spirits,  originally  mes- 
sengers of  the  gods. — §  iS.  The  great  Tower  and  the  Con- 
fusion of  Tongues. 

VII. 

Myths. — Heroes  and  the  Mythical  Epos    .    294-330 

§  I.  Definition  of  the  word  Myth. — §  2.  The  Heroes. — §  3. 
The  Heroic  Ages  and  Heroic  Myths.  The  National  Epos. 
— §  4.  The  oldest  known  Epic. — §  5.  Berosus'  account  of 
the  Flood. — §  6.  Geo.  Smith's  discovery  of  the  original  Chal- 
dean narrative. — §  7.  The  Epic  divided  into  books  or  Tab- 
lets.— §  8.  Izdubar  the  Hero  of  the  Epic. — §  9.  Erech's  hu- 
miliation under  the  Elamite  Conquest.  Izdubar's  dream. — 
§  10.  Eabani  the  Seer.  Izdubar's  invitation  and  promises  to 
him. — §  II.  Message  sent  to  Eabani  by  Ishtar's  handmaid- 
ens. His  arrival  at  Erech. — §  12.  Izdubar  and  Eabani's 
victory  over  the  tyrant  Khumbaba. — §  13.  Ishtar's  love  mes- 
sage. Her  rejection  and  wrath.  The  two  friends'  victory 
over  the  Bull  sent  by  her. — §  14.  Ishtar's  vengeance.  Izdu- 
bar's journey  to  the  Mouth  of  the  Rivers. — §  15.  Izdubar 
sails  the  Waters  of  Death  and  is  healed  by  his  immortal  an- 
cestor Hasisadra. — §  16  Izdubar's  return  to  Erech  and  la- 
ment over  Eabani.  The  seer  is  translated  among  the  gods. 
— §  17.  The  Deluge  narrative  in  the  Eleventh  Tablet  of  the 
Izdubar  Epic. — §§  18-21.  Mythic  and  solar  character  of  the 
Epic  analyzed. — §  22.  Sun-Myth  of  the  Beautiful  Youth,  his 
early  death  and  resurrection. — §§  23-24.  Dumuzi-Tammuz, 
the  husband  of  Ishtar.    The  festival  of  Dumuzi  in  June. — §  25. 


Cr.  ASS  IF/ ED  CONTENTS. 


XI 


PAGE 

Ishtar's  Descent  to  the  Land  of  the  Dead. — §  26.  Universal- 
ity of  the  Solar  and  Chthonic  Myths. 

VIII. 

Religion  and  Mvthologv. — Idolatry  and  An- 
thropomorphism.—  The  ChaldE(\n  Le- 
gends   and    the    Book     of    Genesis. — 

Retrospect 2>Z^~3Z^ 

§  I.  Definition  of  Mythology  and  Religion,  as  distinct  from 
each  other. — §§  2-3.  Instances  of  pure  religious  feeling  in  the 
poetry  of  Shumir  and  Accad. — §  4.  Religion  often  stifled  by 
Mythology. — §§  5-6.  The  conception  of  the  inimortalily  of 
the  soul  suggested  by  the  sun's  career. — §  7.  This  expressed 
in  the  Solar  and  Chthonic  Myths. — §  8.  Idolatry. — §  9.  The 
Hebrews,  originally  polytheists  and  idolaters,  reclaimed  by 
their  leaders  to  Monotheism. — §  10.  Their  intercourse  with 
the  tribes  of  Canaan  conducive  to  relapses. — §  li.  Intermar- 
riage severely  forbidden  for  this  reason.  Striking  similarity 
between  the  Book  of  Genesis  and  the  ancient  Chaldean  le- 
gends.— §  13.  Parallel  between  the  two  accounts  of  the  crea- 
tion.— §  14.  Anthropomorphism,  different  from  polytheism 
and  idolatry,  but  conducive  to  both. — §§  15-17.  Parallel  con- 
tinued.— §§  18-19.  Retrospect. 


PRINCIPAL  WORKS  READ  OR  CONSULT- 
ED IN  THE  PREPARATION  OF  THIS 
VOLUME. 

Baer,  Wilhelm.     Der  Vorgeschichtliche  Menscii. 

I  vol.,  Leipzig  :  1S74. 
Baudisstn,    W,    von.     Studien    zur    Semitischen     Religions- 

GESCHICHTE.      2  vols. 

Budge,  E.  A.  W.\llis.  Babyloni.'VN  Life  and  History.  ("By- 
paths of  Bible  Knowledge  "  Series,  V.)  1884.  London :  The 
Religious  Tract  Society,     i  vol. 

History  of  Esarhaddon.     i  vol. 

Bunsen,  Chr.  Carl  Jos.  Gott  in  der  Geschichte,  oder  Der  Fort- 
schrift  des  Glaubens  an  eine  sittliche  Weltordnung  3  vols. 
Leipzig:  1857. 

Castren,  Alexander.  Kleinere  Schriften.  St.  Petersburg : 
1S62.     I  vol. 

Cory.    Ancient  Fragments.     London :  1876.     i  vol. 

Delitzsch,  Dr.  Friedrich.  Wo  lag  das  Paradies.'  eine  Bib- 
lisch.     Assyriologische  Studie.     Leipzig:  1881.     i  vol. 

Die    Sprache   der    Kossaer.      Leipzig:  1885   (or   1884.?). 

I  vol. 

DuNCKER,  Max.  Geschichte  des  Alterthums.  Leipzig:  1878. 
Vol.  ist. 

Fergusson,  James.  Palaces  of  Nineveh  and  Persepolis  Re- 
stored.    I  vol. 

Happel,  Julius.  Die  Altchinesische  Reichsreligion,  vom 
Standpunkte  der  Vergleichenden  Religionsgeschichte.  46  pages, 
Leipzig  :  1882. 

H.\upt,  Paul.  Der  Keilinschriftliche  Sintflutbericht,  eine 
Episode  des  Babylon ischen  Nimrodepos.  36  pages.  Got- 
tingen  :  1881 

xiii 


xiv  PRINCIPAL   WORKS  COXSULTED. 

HoMMEi,,  Dr.  Fritz.  Gesciiichtk  B.vhyi.unmens  uno  Assyriens 
(First  instalment,  i6o  pp.).  (Allgemeine  Geschichte  in  Ein- 
zelnen  Darstellungen,  edited  by  W.M.  O.ncke.n  ;  95  Lieferung.) 
Berlin  :  18S5 

Die  Vorsemitisciien  Kulturen  in  /Egypten  unu  H.\ky- 

LONIEN.     Leipzig:   1882  and  18S3. 

L.WARO,  Austen  H.  Discoveries  among  the  ruins  ok  Nineveh 
AND  Bahylon.     (American  Edition.)     New  York:  1853.     i  vol. 

Nineveh  and  its  Remains.     London:  1849.     -  vols.  • 

Lenormant,  Francois.  Les  Premi^kes  Civn.is.vrioNS.  Etudes 
d'Histoire  et  d'Archeologie.     1S74.     Paris  :  Maisonneuve  et  Cie. 

2  vols. 

Les  Origines  de  l'Histoire,  d'apres  la  Bible  et  les  Tradi- 
tions   des    Peuples   Orientau.x.      Paris:   Maisonneuve   et   Cie. 

3  vol.     ler  vol.  1880  ;  2e  vol.  1882  ;  36  vol.  1884. 

La   GENfesE.      Traduction   d'apres   I'llebreu.      Paris:  18S3. 

I  vol. 
Die  Magie  und  Wahrs.vgekunst  der  Chaldaer.     Jena, 

1878.     I  vol. 
Il  Mito   di  Adone-Tammuz    nei    Document!    cuneiformi. 

32  pages.     Firenze  :  1879. 
SuR  LE  nom  de  Tammouz.     (Extrait  des  Memoires  du  Con- 

gres  international  des  Orientalistes.)     17  pages.     Paris:   1873. 
A  Manual  of  the  Ancient  History  of  the  East.     Trans- 


lated   by   E.    Chevallier.      American     Edition.      Philadelphia: 

187 1.     2  vols. 
Lorrus.    Chaldea  and  Susiana.     i  vol.     London  :  1857. 
Lotz,  Guilelmus.    Qu^stiones  de  Historia  Sabb.\ti.     Lipsiae  : 

18S3. 
Maury,  Alfred   L.  F.     La  Magie  et  l'Astrologie  dans  I'anti- 

quite  et  en  Moyen  Age.     Paris:  1877.      i  vol.     Quatrieme  edi- 
tion. 
Maspero,  G.     Hlstoire  Anctenne  des   Peuples  de  l'Orient. 

3d  edition,  1878.     Paris:  Hachette  &  Cie.     i  vol. 
Menant,  Joachim.     La   Biblioth^que   du    Palais   de   Ninive. 

I  vol.     (Bibliotheque  (3rientale  Elzevirienne.)     Paris:  1880. 
Meyer,  Eduard.      Geschichte    des   Alterthums.      Stuttgart: 

1834.    Vol.  I  St. 
MiJLLER,  Max.    Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language.     2  vols. 

American  edition.     New  York  :  1875. 


PRINCIPAL   WORKS  CONSUl.'PED.  y^^ 

MURDTER,     F.        KURZGEFASSTE     GeSCHICHTE      HaHVLUNIKNS     UND 

AssYRiENS,  mit  besonderer  Heriicksichtigung  des  Altcn  Testa- 
ments. Mit  Vorwort  und  Beigaben  von  Friedrich  Delitzsch. 
Stuttgart  :    1882.      i  vol. 

Opi'ert,  Jules.  L'iM.MORT.vL!  r6  de  l'Ame  CHEZ  les  C»ald6ens. 
28  pages.  (E.xtrait  des  Annales  de  Philosophie  Chretienne, 
1874.) 

Qu.vtrefages,  a.  de.  L'EspfeCE  Humaine.  Si.xieme  edition. 
I  vol.     Paris:  1S80. 

Rawlinson,  George.  The  Five  Great  Monarchies  of  the 
Ancient  Eastern  World.     London  :  1865.     ist  and  2d  vols. 

Records  ok  the  Past.     Published  under  the  sanction  of  the 

Society  of  Biblical  Archaeology.  Volumes  I.  III.  V.  VII.  IX. 
XI. 

Sayce,  a.  H.  Fresh  Light  from  Ancient  Monuments.  ('•  By- 
Paths  of  Bible  Knowledge"  Series,  II.)  3d  edition,  1885.  Lon- 
don :   I  vol. 

The  Ancient  Empires  of  the  East,    i  vol.    London,  1884. 

Babylonian  LiTER.vruRE.     i  vol.     r.ondon,  1884. 

Schrader,  Eberhard.  Keilinschriften  und  Geschichtsfor-- 
schung.     Giessen  :  1878.     i  vol. 

Die  Keilinschriften,  und  das  Alte  Testament.     Giessen  : 

1883.     I  vol. 

Istar's  Hollenfahrt.     I  vol.     Giessen  :  1874. 

ZuR  Fragenach  dem  Ursprung  der  Altbabylonischen 

Kultur.     Berlin :  1884. 

Smith,  George.  Assyria  from  the  Earliest  Times  to  the  Fall  of 
Nineveh.  ("  Ancient  History  from  the  Monuments "  Series.) 
London :    i  vol. 

Tylor,  Edward  B.  Primitive  Culture.  Second  American  Edi- 
tion.    2  vols.     New  York  :  1877. 

Zimmern,  Heinrich.  Babylonische  Busspsalmen,  umschrieben, 
iibersetzt  und  erklart.     17  pages,  4to.     Leipzig  :  1885. 

Numerous  Essays  by  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  Friedr.  Delitzsch, 
E.  Schrader  and  others,  in  Mr.  Geo.  Rawlinson's  translation  of  He- 
rodotus, in  Calever's  Bibellexikon,  and  in  various  periodicals,  such  as 
"  Proceedings  "  and  "  Transactions  "  of  the  "  Society  of  Biblical  Ar- 
chaeology," "  Jahrbiicher  fiir  Protestantische  Theologie,"  "  Zeit- 
schrift  fur  Keilschriftforschung,"  "Gazette  Archeologique,"  and 
others. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PACE 

SHAMASH    THE    SUN-GOD. 

Fro7n  a  tablet  in  the  British  Museum.     Frontispiece. 

1.  CUNEIFORM    CHARACTERS.       .    Meua/lt.  lO 

2.  DISCOVERY        OF        GIGANTIC 

HEAD Layard.  23 

3.  EXCAVATIONS  AT  KOYUNjiK  .  Layard.  31 

4.  KOYUNJIK  FISH-GOD     .     .     .  Layard.  33 

5.  TUNNEL  ALONG  WALL .     .     .  Layard.  35 

6.  TUNNEL  ALONG  WALL .     .     .  Layard.  37 

7.  EXCAVATED  CHAMBER .     .     .  Layard.  39 

8.  THE      PROCESSION      OF       THE 

BULL Layard.  41 

9.  BUILDING  IN  BAKED  BRICK    .  Perrot  and  Chippiez.      43 

10.  THE    "  KASR,"    ALSO    CALLED 

MujELiBEH Layard.  45 

11.  MOUND     OF     MUGHEIR       (AN- 

CIENT ur) Ra7oUnson.  47 

12.  TERRACE    WALL    AT    KHORSA- 

BAD Ra7i.<linso?i.  49 

13.  BASEMENT  OF  TEMPLE  TOWER 

AT  NiMRUD Rawlinson.  51 

14.  MOUND  OF  NIMRUD     .     .     .   Layard.  53 

15.  BIRS-I-NIMRUD  (aNCIENT 

borsippa) Smith.  53 

xvii 


X  V  i  ii  /'/''5'  T  OF  ILL  US  TRA  r/O-VS. 

PAGE 

1 6.  LOWERING        THE       WINGED 

BULi Layard.  55 

17.  MOUND         OF       NEHBI-YUNUS 

(jonah's  mound)    .     .     .  RiUi'Iiiison.  57 

18.  WATER  transport  OF  STONE.  KawHiison.  59 

19.  SOLDIER    SWIMMING    RIVER    .    KinoHnSflH.  59 

20.  Sennacherib's  palace  .     .  Layard.  6i 

21.  CIRCULAR  PILLAR  BASE      .       .    Ra^oUnSOIl.  63 
2  2.    COURT  OF  SARGON'S    PALACE.    Ra-ii'lillSOH.  65 

23.  INTERIOR  OF  PALACE,  AFTER 

LAYARD RawUnson.  67 

24.  PAVEMENT  SLAB RawUnSOTl.  69 

25.  ORNAMENTAL  DOORWAY     .       .    Ra7vUnS0Jl.  7  I 

26.  LION  WITH  HUMAN  HEAD.     .  Perrot  ofid  Cli'ippicz.      73 

27.  WINGED  BULL FctKot  atid  Cliippicz.     75 

28.  FRIEZE  REPRESENTING    KING 

AND  ATTENDANTS       .       .       .    RawUnSOH.  77 

29.  ASSYRIAN  PATTERNS      .       .       .    RawUllSOH.  JJ 

30.  ASSYRIAN  PATTERN         .       .       .    RawlwSOH.  79 

31.  32,  2^1-    ASSYRIAN    PATTERNS.    RatvUllSOtl.  81 

34.  ARMENIAN   LOUVRE.       .       .       .    RdW/illSOtl.  83 

35,  36.  VAULTED  DRAINS  .     .     .  Layard.  84 

37.  CHALDEAN  JAR  COFFIN       .       .    RaioHnSOH.  85 

38,  39.    DISH-COVER  COFFINS  .           RawliusOH.  87 

40.  SEPULCHRAL  VAULT  AT  MUG- 

HEIR     Rawlinson.  89 

41.  LAMPS  FOUND    IN    CHALDEAN 

TOMBS Ra7C>linson.  89 

42.  SECTION  OF  DRAIN  ....  Ra7vIinson.  90 

43.  TERRA  COTTA  CONE,  NATUR- 

AL SIZE Razalinson.  91 

44.  WALL  AT  WARKA       ....    RawUtlSOIl.  9I 

45.  ENTRANCE  TO    ROYAL    LIBRA- 

RY     Layard.  loi 


LIST  OF  IL L I \S- TEA  TfOA 'S.  x  1 X 


1'A(;k 


46.  CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTION.       .    Pcrrot  iDld  CllipplCZ.     107 

47.  INSCRIHKD  CLAY  TABLET  .       .    Smith.  109 

48.  TABLEi" Rawlinsoit.  in 

49.  SEAL  CYLINDER RawUllSOIl.  112 

50.  CYLINDER      IN      AGATE     AND 

JASPER Layard.  113 

51.  PRISMA  OF  SENNACHERIB.     .  British  Museum.  115 

52.  INSCRIBED    CYLINDER     FROM 

BORSIPPA 117 

53.  DEMONS  FIGHTING  ....  British  Museum  165 

54.  DEMOxN  OF         SOUTH-WEST 

WIND Pcrrot  and  Chippiez.    169 

55.  HEAD  OF  DEMON     ....  British  Musewn.         170 

56.  OANNES  THE  FISH-GOD       .       .    Slilith.  187 

57.  CYLINDER    OF    SARGON    FROM 

AGADE Ho7nmd.  207 

58.  STATUE  OF  GUDEA    ....    Hommcl.  217 

59.  BUST  OF  NEBO British  Museum.         243 

60.  BACK     OF     TABLET    WITH    AC- 

COUNT OF  FLOOD     .     .     .  Sfuith.  262 

61.  BABYLONIAN  CYLINDER,  SUP- 

POSED TO  REPRESENT  THE 

TEMPTATION  AND  FALL       .    Smith.  266 

62.  FEMALE  WINGED  FIGURE    BE- 

FORE SACRED  TREE.     .     .  British  Museum.         269 

63.  WINGED  SPIRITS    BEFORE    SA- 

CRED TREE Smith.  270 

64.  SARGON  11.  BEFORE  SACRED 

TREE Perrot  and  Chippiez.    271 

65.  EAGLE-HEADED     FIGURE    BE- 

FORE SACRED   TREE.       .       .    Smith.  273 

66.  FOUR-WINGED      HUMAN      FIG- 

URE BEFORE  SACRED  TREE.  Perrot  and  Chippiez.    275 


XX  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PACE 

67.  TEMPLE  AND    HANCHNO    r,AR- 

DENS  AT  KOYUNjiK.     .     .  Ra^oUnson.  277 

68.  TOWER     OF     TEMPLE    (ZKJCU- 

rat) Kaii'Iinson.  278 

69.  ziGGURAT  RESTORED    .     .     .   ]\rrot  atid  Cliippkz.    279 

70.  PLAN  OF    ZIGGURAT    OF    HOR- 

siPPA Rawlins  on.  281 

71.  BEL  ARMING  TO  FIGHT  DRAG- 

ON (ASSYRIAN  cylinder)  .  Smifk.  289 

72.  BEL     FIGHTS       THE      DRAGON 

(BABYLONIAN  CYLINDER)  ,    Sviith.  289 

73.  BATfLE    BETWEEN     BEL    AND 

DRAGON Smith.  291 

74.  IZDUBAR  AND  LION.       .       .       .    Smith.  306 

75.  IZDUBAR  AND  LION.     .     .     .  British  Museiun.         307 

76.  IZDUBAR  AND  EABANI    FIGHT 

THE  BULL  OF  ISHTAR     .       .    Smith.  309 

77.  IZDUBAR  AND  EABANI .     .     .  Pcrrot  and  Ckippicz.    310 

78.  SCORPION  MAN Sfnith.  311 

79.  STONE  OBJECT  FOUND  AT  ABU- 

HABBA Budge.  312 


s,^ 


^-^\^ 


INTRODUCTION. 


I. 

MESOPOTAMIA.— THE       MOUNDS.— THE       FIRST 
SEARCHERS. 

1.  In  or  about  the  year  before  Christ  606,  Nine- 
veh, the  great  city,  was  destroyed.  For  many  hun- 
dred years  had  she  stood  in  arrogant  splendor,  her 
palaces  towering  above  the  Tigris  and  mirrored  in  its 
swift  waters;  army  after  army  had  gone  forth  from 
her  gates  and  returned  laden  with  the  spoils  of  con- 
quered countries;  her  monarchs  had  ridden  to  the 
high  place  of  sacrifice  in  chariots  drawn  by  captive 
kings.  But  her  time  came  at  last.  The  nations 
assembled  and  encompassed  her  around.  Popular 
tradition  tells  how  over  two  years  lasted  the  siege  ; 
how  the  very  river  rose  and  battered  her  walls ;  till 
one  day  a  vast  flame  rose  up  to  heaven  ;  how  the 
last  of  a  mighty  line  of  kings,  too  proud  to  surren- 
der, thus  saved  himself,  his  treasures  and  his  cap- 
ital from  the  shame  of  bondage.  Never  was  city 
to  rise  again  where  Nineveh  had  been. 

2.  Two  hundred  years  went  by.      Great  changes 


2  INTRODUCriOiV. 

had  passed  over  the  land.  The  Persian  kings  now 
held  the  rule  of  Asia.  But  their  greatness  also  was 
leaning  towards  its  decline  and  family  discords 
undermined  their  power.  A  young  prince  had  re- 
belled against  his  elder  brother  and  resolved  to  tear 
the  crown  from  him  by  main  force.  To  accomplish 
this,  he  had  raised  an  army  and  called  in  the  help 
of  Grecian  hirelings..  They  came,  T3,ock)  in  number, 
led  by  brave  and  renowned  generals,  and  did  their 
duty  by  him;  but  their  valor  could  not  save  him 
from  defeat  and  death.  Their  own  leader  fell  into 
an  ambush,  and  they  commenced  their  retreat  un- 
der the  most  disastrous  circumstances  and  with  lit- 
tle hope  of  escape. 

3.  Yet  they  accomplished  it.  Surrounded  by  open 
enemies  and  false  friends,  tracked  and  pursued, 
through  sandy  wastes  and  pathless  mountains,  now 
parched  with  heat,  now  numbed  with  cold,  they  at 
last  reached  the  sunny  and  friend!}'  Hellespont.  It 
was  a  long  and  weary  march  from  Bab}'lon  on  the 
Euphrates,  near  which  city  the  great  battle  had 
been  fought.  They  might  not  have  succeeded  had 
they  not  chosen  a  great  and  brave  commander, 
Xenophon,  a  noble  Athenian,  whose  fame  as 
scholar  and  writer  equals  his  renown  as  soldier  and 
general.  Few  books  are  more  interesting  than  the 
lively  relation  he  has  left  of  his  and  his  companions' 
toils  and  sufferings  in  this  expedition,  known  in 
history  as  "  The  Retreat  of  the  Ten  Thousand  " — 
for  to  that  number  had  the  original  13,000  been 
reduced  by  battles,  privations  and  disease.  So  cul- 
tivated a   man  could  not  fail,  even   in  the  midst  of 


MESOPOTAMIA.  - 

danger  and  weighed  down  by  care,  to  observe  what- 
ever was  noteworthy  in  the  strange  lands  which  he 
traversed.  So  he  tells  us  how  one  day  his  little 
army,  after  a  forced  march  in  the  early  morning 
hours  and  an  engagement  with  some  light  troops  of 
pursuers,  having  repelled  the  attack  and  thereby 
secured  a  short  interval  of  safety,  travelled  on  till 
they  came  to  the  banks  of  the  Tigris.  On  that 
spot,  he  goes  on,  there  was  a  vast  desert  city.  Its 
wall  was  twenty-five  feet  wide,  one  hundred  feet 
high  and  nearly  seven  miles  in  circuit.  It  was  built 
of  brick  with  a  basement,  twenty  feet  high,  of  stone. 
Close  by  the  city  there  stood  a  stone  pyramid,  one 
hundred  feet  in  width,  and  two  hundred  in  height. 
Xenophon  adds  that  this  city's  name  was  Larissa 
and  that  it  had  anciently  been  inhabited  by  Medes  ; 
that  the  king  of  Persia,  when  he  took  the  sover- 
eignty away  from  the  Medes,  besieged  it,  but  could 
not  in  any  way  get  possession  of  it,  until,  a  cloud 
having  obscured  the  sun,  the  inhabitants  forsook 
the  city  and  thus  it  was  taken. 

4.  Some  eighteen  miles  further  on  (a  day's  march) 
the  Greeks  came  to  another  great  deserted  city, 
which  Xenophon  calls  Mespila.  It  had  a  similar 
but  still  higher  wall.  This  city,  he  tells  us,  had  also 
been  inhabited  by  Medes,  and  taken  by  the  king  of 
Persia.  Now  these  curious  ruins  were  all  that  was 
left  of  Calah  and  Nineveh,  the  two  Assyrian  capitals. 
In  the  short  space  of  two  hundred  years,  men  had 
surely  not  yet  lost  the  memory  of  Nineveh's  exist- 
ence and  rule,  yet  they  trod  the  very  site  where  it 
had  stood  and  knew  it  not,  and  called  its  ruins  by  a 


A  INTRODUCTION. 

meaningless  Greek  name,  handing  down  concerning 
it  a  tradition  absurdly  made  up  of  true  and  ficti- 
tious details,  jumbled  into  inextricable  confusion. 
For  Nineveh  had  been  the  capital  of  the  Assyrian 
Empire,  while  the  Medes  were  one  of  the  nations 
who  attacked  and  destroyed  it.  And  though  an 
eclipse  of  the  sun — (the  obscuring  cloud  could  mean 
nothing  else) — did  occur,  created  great  confusion 
and  produced  important  results,  it  was  at  a  later 
period  and  on  an  entirely  different  occasion.  As 
to  "  the  king  of  Persia,"  no  such  personage  had  any- 
thing whatever  to  do  with  the  catastrophe  of  Nine- 
veh, since  the  Persians  had  not  yet  been  heard  of 
at  that  time  as  a  powerful  people,  and  their  coun- 
try was  only  a  small  and  insignificant  principality, 
tributary  to  Media.  So  effectually  had  the  haughty 
city  been  swept  from  the  face  of  the  earth  ! 

5.  Another  hundred  years  brought  on  other  and 
even  greater  changes.  The  Persian  monarchy  had 
followed  in  the  wake  of  the  empires  that  had  gone 
before  it  and  fallen  before  Alexander,  the  youthful 
hero  of  Macedon.  As  the  conqueror's  fleet  of  light- 
built  Grecian  ships  descended  the  Euphrates  tow- 
ards Babylon,  they  were  often  hindered  in  their 
progress  by  huge  dams  of  stone  built  across  the 
river.  The  Greeks,  with  great  labor,  removed  sev- 
eral, to  make  navigation  more  easy.  They  did 
the  same  on  several  other  rivers, — nor  knew  that 
they  were  destroying  the  last  remaining  vestige  of 
a  great  people's  civilization, — for  these  dams  had 
been  used  to  save  the  water  and  distribute  it  into 
the  numerous  canals,  which  covered  the  arid  coun- 


MESOPOTAMIA.  5 

try  with  their  fertilizing  network.  They  may  have 
been  told  what  travellers  are  told  in  our  own  days 
by  the  Arabs— that  these  dams  had  been  con- 
structed once  upon  a  time  by  Nimrod,  the  Hunter- 
King.  For  some  of  them  remain  even  still,  show- 
ing their  huge,  square  stones,  strongly  united  by 
iron  cramps,  above  the  water  before  the  river  is 
swollen  with  the  winter  rains. 

6.  More  than  one-and-twenty  centuries  have  rolled 
since  then  over  the  immense  valley  so  well  named 
Mesopotamia — "the  Land  between  the  Rivers," — 
and  each  brought  to  it  more  changes,  more  wars, 
more  disasters,  with  rare  intervals  of  rest  and  pros- 
perity. Its  position  between  the  East  and  the 
West,  on  the  very  high-road  of  marching  armies 
and  wandering  tribes,  has  always  made  it  one  of  the 
great  battle  grounds  of  the  world.  About  one  thou- 
sand years  after  Alexander's  rapid  invasion  and 
short-lived  conquest,  the  Arabs  overran  the  coun- 
try, and  settled  there,  bringing  with  them  a  new 
civilization  and  the  new  religion  given  them  by 
their  prophet  Mohammed,  which  they  thought  it 
their  mission  to  carry,  by  force  of  word  or  sword, 
to  the  bounds  of  the  earth.  They  even  founded 
there  one  of  the  principal  seats  of  their  sovereignty, 
and  Baghdad  yielded  not  greatly  in  magnificence 
and  power  to  Babylon  of  old. 

7.  Order,  laws,  and  learning  now  flourished  for  a 
few  hundred  years,  when  new  hordes  of  barbarous 
people  came  pouring  in  from  the  East,  and  one  of 
them,  the  Turks,  at  last  established  itself  in  the  land 
and  stayed.     They  rule  there  now.     The  valley  of 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  is  a  province  of  the  Otto- 
man or  Turkish  Empire,  which  has  its  capital  in 
Constantinople  ;  it  is  governed  b)'  pashas,  officials 
sent  b)'  the  Turkish  government,  or  the  "  Sublime 
Porte,"  as  it  is  usually  called,  and  the  ignorant,  op- 
pressive, grinding  treatment  to  which  it  has  now 
been  subjected  for  several  hundred  years  has  re- 
duced it  to  the  lowest  depth  of  desolation.  Its 
wealth  is  exhausted,  its  industry  destroyed,  its  pros- 
perous cities  have  disappeared  or  dwindled  into  in- 
significance. Even  Mossul,  built  by  the  Arabs  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  Tigris,  opposite  the  spot  where 
Nineveh  once  stood,  one  of  their  finest  cities,  fa- 
mous for  the  manufacturing  of  the  delicate  cotton 
tissue  to  which  it  gave  its  name — ymuslin,  mousse- 
line) — would  have  lost  all  importance,  had  it  not  the 
honor  to  be  the  chief  town  of  a  Turkish  district  and 
to  harbor  a  pasha.  And  Baghdad,  although  still  the 
capital  of  the  whole  province,  is  scarcely  more  than 
the  shadow  of  her  former  glorious  self;  and  her 
looms  no  longer  supply  the  markets  of  the  world 
with  wonderful  shawls  and  carpets,  and  gold  and  sil- 
ver tissues  of  marvellous  designs. 

8.  Mesopotamia  is  a  region  which  must  suffer 
under  neglect  and  misgovernment  even  more  than 
others ;  for,  though  richly  endowed  by  nature,  it  is 
of  a  peculiar  formation,  requiring  constant  care  and 
intelligent  management  to  yield  all  the  return  of 
which  it  is  capable.  That  care  must  chiefly  consist 
in  distributing  the  waters  of  the  two  great  rivers  and 
their  affluents  over  all  the  land  by  means  of  an  intri- 
cate system  of  canals,  regulated  by  a  complete  and 


MESOPOTAMIA.  y 

well-kept  set  of  dams  and  sluices,  with  other  simpler 
arrangements  for  the  remoter  and  smaller  branches. 
The  yearly  inundations  caused  by  the  Tigris  and 
Euphrates,  which  overflow  their  banks  in  spring, 
are  not  sufficient ;  only  a  narrow  strip  of  land  on 
each  side  is  benefited  by  them.  In  the  lowlands 
towards  the  Persian  Gulf  there  is  another  inconven- 
ience: the  country  there  being  perfectly  flat,  the 
waters  accumulate  and  stagnate,  forming  vast  pesti- 
lential swamps  where  rich  pastures  and  wheat-fields 
should  be — and  have  been  in  ancient  times.  In 
short,  if  left  to  itself,  Upper  Mesopotamia,  (ancient 
Assyria),  is  unproductive  from  the  barrenness  of  its 
soil,  and  Lower  Mesopotamia,  (ancient  Chaldea  and 
Babylonia),  runs  to  waste,  notwithstanding  its  ex- 
traordinary fertility,  from  want  of  drainage. 

9.  Such  is  actually  the  condition  of  the  once  pop- 
ulous and  flourishing  valley,  owing  to  the  principles 
on  which  the  Turkish  rulers  carry  on  their  govern- 
ment. They  look  on  their  remoter  provinces  as 
mere  sources  of  revenue  for  the  state  and  its  officials. 
But  even  admitting  this  as  their  avowed  and  t:hief 
object,  they  pursue  it  in  an  altogether  wrong-headed 
and  short-sighted  way.  The  people  are  simply  and 
openly  plundered,  and  no  portion  of  what  is  taken 
from  them  is  applied  to  any  uses  of  local  public  util- 
ity, as  roads,  irrigation,  encouragement  of  commerce 
and  industry  and  the  like;  what  is  not  sent  home  to 
the  Sultan  goes  into  the  private  pouches  of  the 
pasha  and  his  many  subaltern  officials.  This  is  like 
taking  the  milk  and  omitting  to  feed  the  cow.  The 
consequence   is,    the   people    lose    their    interest    in 


g  INTRODUCTION. 

work  of  any  kind,  leave  off  striving  for  an  increase 
of  property  which  they  will  not  be  permitted  to  en- 
joy, and  resign  themselves  to  utter  destitution  with 
a  stolid  apathy  most  painful  to  witness.  The  land 
has  been  brought  to  such  a  degree  of  impoverish- 
ment that  it  is  actually  no  longer  capable  of  produc- 
ing crops  sufficient  for  a  settled  population.  It  is 
cultivated  only  in  patches  along  the  rivers,  where 
the  soil  is  rendered  so  fertile  by  the  yearly  inunda- 
tions as  to  yield  moderate  returns  almost  unasked, 
and  that  mostly  by  wandering  tribes  of  Arabs  or  of 
Kurds  from  the  mountains  to  the  north,  who  raise 
their  tents  and  leave  the  spot  the  moment  they  have 
gathered  in  their  little  harvest — if  it  has  not  been 
appropriated  first  by  some  of  the  pasha's  tax-collect- 
ors or  by  roving  parties  of  Bedouins — robber-tribes 
from  the  adjoining  Syrian  and  Arabian  deserts,  who, 
mounted  on  their  own  matchless  horses,  are  carried 
across  the  open  border  with  as  much  facility  as  the 
drifts  of  desert  sand  so  much  dreaded  by  travellers. 
The  rest  of  the  country  is  left  to  nature's  own  de- 
vice»  and,  wherever  it  is  not  cut  up  by  mountains  or 
rocky  ranges,  offers  the  well-known  twofold  charac- 
ter of  steppe-land  :  luxuriant  grassy  vegetation  dur- 
ing one-third  of  the  year  and  a  parched,  arid  waste 
the  rest  of  the  time,  except  during  the  winter  rains 
and  spring  floods. 

lo.  A  wild  and  desolate  scene  !  Imposing  too  in 
its  sorrowful  grandeur,  and  well  suited  to  a  land 
which  may  be  called  a  graveyard  of  empires  and  na- 
tions. The  monotony  of  the  landscape  would  be 
unbroken,  but  for  certain  elevations  and  hillocks  of 


MES0P07^AAf/A. 


9 


strange  and  varied  shapes,  which  spring  up,  as  it  were, 
from  the  plain  in  every  direction  ;  some  are  high  and 
conical  or  pyramidal  in  form,  others  are  quite  exten- 
sive and  rather  flat  on  the  summit,  others  again 
long  and  low,  and  all  curiously  unconnected  with 
each  other  or  any  ridge  of  hills  or  mountains.  This 
is  doubly  striking  in  Lower  Mesopotamia  or  Baby- 
lonia, proverbial  for  its  excessive  flatness.  The  few 
permanent  villages,  composed  of  mud-huts  or  plaited 
reed-cabins,  are  generally  built  on  these  eminences, 
others  are  used  as  burying-grounds,  and  a  mosque, 
the  Mohammedan  house  of  prayer,  sometimes  rises 
on  one  or  the  other.  They  are  pleasing  objects  in 
the  beautiful  spring  season,  when  corn-fields  wave 
on  their  summits,  and  their  slopes,  as  well  as  all  the 
surrounding  plains,  are  clothed  with  the  densest  and 
greenest  of  herbage,  enlivened  with  countless  flow- 
ers of  every  hue,  till  the  surface  of  the  earth  looks, 
from  a  distance  or  from  a  height,  as  gorgeous  as  the 
richest  Persian  carpet.  But,  on  approaching  nearer 
to  these  hillocks  or  mounds,  an  unprepared  traveller 
would  be  struck  by  some  peculiar  features.  Their 
substance  being  rather  soft  and  yielding,  and  the 
winter  rains  pouring  down  with  exceeding  violence, 
their  sides  are  furrowed  in  many  places  wijih  ravines, 
dug  by  the  rushing  streams  of  rain-water.  These 
streams  of  course  wash  down  much  of  the  substance 
itself  and  carry  it  far  into  the  plain,  where  it  lies 
scattered  on  the  surface  quite  distinct  from  the  soil. 
These  washings  are  found  to  consist  not  of  earth  or 
sand,  but  of  rubbish,  something  like  that  which  lies 
in  heaps  wherever  a  house  is  being  built  or  demol- 


10 


INTRODUCTION. 


ished,  and  to  contain  innumerable  fragments  of 
bricks,  pottery,  stone  evidently  worked  by  the  hand 
and  chisel  ;  many  of  these  fragments  moreover  bear 
ing  inscriptions  in  complicated  characters  composed 
of  one  curious  figure  shaped  like  the  head  of  an  ar- 
row, and  used  in  every  possible  position  and  combi- 
nation,— like  this : 

I. — CUNEIFORM   CHARACTERS. 

11.  In  the  crevices  or  ravines  themselves,  the 
waters  having  cleared  away  masses  of  this  loose  rub- 
bish, have  laid  bare  whole  sides  of  walls  of  solid 
brick-work,  sometimes  even  a  piece  of  a  human  head 
or  limb,  or  a  corner  of  sculptured  stone-slab,  always 
of  colossal  size  and  bold,  striking  execution.  All 
this  tells  its  own  tale  and  the  conclusion  is  self-ap- 
parent:  that  these  elevations  are  not  natural  hil- 
locks or  knolls,  but  artificial  mounds,  heaps  of  earth 
and  buildincr  materials  which  have  been  at  some 
time  placed  there  by  men,  then,  collapsing  and 
crumbling  to  rubbish  from  neglect,  have  concealed 
within  their  ample  sides  all  that  remains  of  those 
ancient  structures  and  works  of  art,  clothed  them- 
selves in  verdure,  and  deceitfully  assumed  all  the 
outward  signs  of  natural  hills. 

12.  The  Arabs  never  thought  of  exploring  these 
curious  heaps.  Mohammedan  nations,  as  a  rule, 
take  little  interest  in  relics  of  antiquity;  moreover 
they  are  very  superstitious,  and,  as  their  religious 
law  strictly  forbids  them  to   represent   the  human 


MESOPOTAMIA.  \  \ 

form  either  in  painting  or  sculpture  lest  such  repro- 
duction might  lead  ignorant  and  misguided  people 
back  to  the  abominations  of  idolatry,  so  they  look 
on  relics  of  ancient  statuary  with  suspicion  amount- 
ing to  fear  and  connect  them  with  magic  and  witch- 
craft.    It  is,  therefore,  with  awe  not  devoid  of  horror 
that  they  tell  travellers  that  the  mounds  contain  un- 
derground passages  which  are  haunted  not  only  by 
wild  beasts,  but  by  evil  spirits— for  have  not  some- 
times strange  figures  carved    in  stone  been  dimly 
perceived   in   the  crevices?     Better  instructed  for- 
eigners have  long  ago  assumed  that"  within  these 
mounds  must  be  entombed  whatever  ruins  may  be 
preserved  of  the  great  cities  of  yore.     Their  number 
formed  no  objection,  for  it  was  well  known  how  pop- 
ulous the  valley  had  been  in  the  days  of  its  splendor, 
and  that,  besides  several  famous  cities,  it  could  boast 
no  end  of  smaller  ones,  often  separated  from  each 
other  by  a  distance  of  only  a  few  miles.     The  long 
low  mounds   were    rightly   supposed    to    represent 
the  ancient  walls,  and  the  jiigher  and  vaster  ones 
to  have  been  the  site  of  the  palaces  and  temples. 
The  Arabs,  though  utterly  ignorant  of  history  of  any 
kind,  have  preserved  in  their  religion  some  traditions 
from  the  Bible,  and  so  it  happens  that  out  of  these 
wrecks   of  ages    some  biblical  names  still  survive. 
Almost  everything  of  which  they  do  not  know  the 
origin,  they  ascribe  to  Nimrod;  and  the  smaller  of 
the  two  mounds  opposite  Mossul,  which  mark  the 
spot  where  Nineveh  itself  once  stood,  they  call  "Jo- 
nah's   Mound,"    and    stoutly    believe    the    mosque 
which    crowns  it,   surrounded    by  a    comparatively 


)  2  INTRODUCriOX. 

prosperous  village,  to  contain  the  tomb  of  Jonah 
himself,  the  prophet  who  was  sent  to  rebuke  and 
warn  the  wicked  city.  As  the  Mohammedans 
honor  the  Hebrew  prophets,  the  whole  mound  is 
sacred  in  their  eyes  in  consequence. 

13.  If  travellers  had  for  some  time  been  aware  of 
these  general  facts  concerning  the  Mounds,  it  was 
many  years  before  their  curiosity  and  interest  were 
so  far  aroused  as  to  make  them  go  to  the  trouble 
and  ejfpense  of  digging  into  them,  in  ortler  to  find 
out  what  they  really  contained.  Until  within  the 
last  hundred  years  or  so,  not  only  the  general  pub- 
lic, but  even  highly  cultivated  men  and  distin- 
guished scholars,  under  the  words  "  study  of  an- 
tiquity," understood  no  more  than  the  study  of  so- 
called  "  Classical  Antiquity,"  i.e.,  of  the  language, 
history  and  literature  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
together  with  the  ruins,  works  of  art,  and  remains 
of  all  sorts  left  by  these  two  nations.  Their  knowl 
edge  of  other  empires  and  people  they  took  from 
the  Greek  and  Roman  historians  and  writers,  with- 
out doubting  or  questioning  their  statements,  or — as 
we  say  now — without  subjecting  their  statements  to 
any  criticism.  Moreover,  European  students  in 
their  absorption  in  and  devotion  to  classical  studies, 
were  too  apt  to  follow  the  example  of  their  favorite 
authors  and  to  class  the  entire  rest  of  the  world,  as 
far  as  it  was  known  in  ancient  times,  under  the 
sweeping  and  somewhat  contemptuous  by-name  of 
"  Barbarians,"  thus  allowing  them  but  a  secondary 
importance  and  an  inferior  claim  to  attention. 

14.  Things  began  greatly  to  change  towards  the 


MESOPOTAMIA. 


13 


end  of  the  last  century.  Yet  the  mounds  of  Assyria 
and  Babylonia  were  still  suffered  to  keep  their  secret 
unrevealed.  This  want  of  interest  may  be  in  part 
explained  by  their  peculiar  nature.  They  are  so  dif-- 
/  ferent  from  other  ruins,  A  row  of  massive  pillars 
or  of  stately  columns  cut  ojat  on  the  clear  blue  sky, 
with  the  desert  around  or  the  sea  at  their  feet, — a 
broken  arch  or  battered  tombstone  clothed  with 
ivy  and  hanging  creepers,  with  the  blue  and  purple 
mountains  for  a  background,  are  striking  objects 
which  first  take  the  eye  by  their  beauty,  then  invite 
inspection  by  the  easy  approach  they  offer.  But 
these  huge,  shapeless  heaps  I  What  labor  to  re- 
move even  a  small  portion  of  them !  And  when 
that  is  done,  who  knows  whether  their  contents  will 
at  all  repay  the  effort  and  expense? 

15.  The  first  European  whose  love  of  learning 
was  strong  enough  to  make  him  disregard  all  such 
doubts  and  difficulties,  was  Mr.  Rich,  an  English- 
man. He  was  not  particularly  successful,  nor  were 
his  researches  very  extensive,  being  carried  on 
entirely  with  his  private  means;  yet  his  name  will 
always  be  honorably  remembered,  for  he  was  the 
first  who  went  to  work  with  pickaxe  and  shovel, 
who  hired  men  to  dig,  who  measured  and  described 
some  of  the  principal  mounds  on  the  Euphrates, 
thus  laying  down  the  groundwork  of  all  later  and 
more  fruitful  explorations  in  that  region.  It  was  in 
1820  and  Mr.  Rich  was  then  political  resident  or 
representative  of  the  East  India  Company  at  Bagh- 
dad. He  also  tried  the  larger  of  the  two  mounds 
opposite  Mossul,  encouraged  by  the   report  that,  a 


H 


INTR  OD  UC  TION. 


short  time  before  he  arrived  there,  a  sculpture  rep- 
resenting men  and  animals  had  been  disclosed  to 
view.  Unfortunately  he  could  not  procure  even  a 
fragment  of  this  treasure,  for  the  people  of  Mossul, 
influenced  by  their  tilcma — (doctor  of  the  law) — who 
had  declared  these  sculptures  to  be  "  idols  of  the 
infidels,"  had  walked  across  the  river  from  the  city 
in  a  body  and  piously  shattered  them  to  atorrrs. 
Mr.  Rich  had  not  the  good  luck  to  come  across  any 
such  find  himself,  and  after  some  further  efforts, 
left  the  place  rather  disheartened.  He  carried 
home  to  England  the  few  relics  he  had  been  able  to 
obtain.  In  the  absence  of  more  important  ones, 
they  were  very  interesting,  consisting  in  fragments 
of  inscriptions,  of  pottery,  in  engraved  stone,  bricks 
and  pieces  of  bricks.  After  his  death  all  these  arti- 
cles were  placed  in  the  British  Museum,  where  they 
formed  the  foundation  of  the  present  noble  Chal- 
dea-Assyrian  collection  of  that  great  institution. 
Nothing  more  was  undertaken  for  years,  so  that  it 
could  be  said  with  literal  truth  that,  up  to  1842,  "a 
case  three  feet  square  inclosed  all  that  remained, 
not  only  of  the  great  city  Nineveh,  but  of  Babylon 
itself !  "  * 

16.  The  next  in  the  field  was  Mr.  Botta,  appointed 
French  Consul  at  Mossul  in  1842.  He  began  to  dig 
at  the  end  of  the  same  year,  and  naturally  attached 
himself  specially  to  the  larger  of  the  two  mounds 
opposite  Mossul,  named  K0YUN7IK,  after  a  small 
village  at  its  base.     This  mound  is  the  Mespila  of 

*  Layard's  "  Discoveries  at  Nineveh,"  Introduction. 


MESOPOTAMIA. 


15 


Xcnophon.  He  began  enthusiastically,  and  worked 
on  for  over  three  months,  but  repeated  disappoint- 
ments were  beginning  to  produce  discouragement, 
when  one  day  a  peasant  from  a  distant  village  hap- 
pened to  be  looking  on  at  the  small  party  of  work- 
men. He  was  much  amused  on  observing  that 
every — to  him  utterly  worthless — fragment  of  alabas- 
ter, brick  or  pottery,  was  carefully  picked  out  of  the 
rubbish,  most  tenderly  handled  and  laid  aside,  and 
laughingly  remarked  that  they  might  be  better  re- 
paid for  their  trouble,  if  they  would  try  the  mound 
on  which  his  village  was  built,  for  that  lots  of  such 
rubbish  had  kept  continually  turning  up,  when  they 
were  digging  the  foundations  of  their  houses. 

17.  Mr.  Botta  had  by  this  time  fallen  into  a  rather 
hopeless  mood  ;  yet  he  did  not  dare  to  neglect  the 
hint,  and  sent  a  few  men  to  the  mound  which  had 
been  pointed  out  to  him,  and  which,  as  well  as  the 
village  on  the  top  of  it,  bore  the  name  of  KhorsA- 
BAD.  His  agent  began  operations  from  the  top.  A 
well  was  sunk  into  the  mound,  and  very  soon 
brought  the  workmen  to  the  top  of  a  wall,  which,  on 
further  digging,  was  found  to  be  lined  along  its  base 
with  sculptured  slabs  of  some  soft  substance  much 
like  gypsum  or  limestone.  This  discovery  quickly 
brought  Mr.  Botta  to  the  spot,  in  a  fever  of  excite- 
ment. He  now  took  the  direction  of  the  works 
himself,  had  a  trench  dug  from  the  outside  straight 
into  the  mound,  wide  and  deep,  towards  the  place 
already  laid  open  from  above.  What  was  his  aston- 
ishment on  finding  that  he  had  entered  a  hall 
entirely  lined  all  round,  except  where  interruptions 


1 6  IXTKOD  UC  T/OJV. 

indicated  the  place  of  doorways  leading  into  other 
rooms,  with  sculptured  slabs  similar  to  the  one  first 
discovered,  and  representing  scenes  of  battles,  sieges 
and  the  like.  He  walked  as  in  a  dream.  It  was  a 
new  and  wonderful  world  suddenly  opened.  For 
these  sculptures  evidently  recorded  the  deeds  of  the 
builder,  some  powerful  conqueror  and  king.  And 
those  long  and  close  lines  engraved  in  the  stone,  all 
along  the  slabs,  in  the  same  peculiar  character  as  the 
short  inscriptions  on  the  bricks  that  lay  scattered 
on  the  plain — they  must  surely  contain  the  text  to 
these  sculptured  illustrations.  But  who  is  to  read 
them?  They  are  not  like  any  known  writing  in  the 
world  and  may  remain  a  sealed  book  forever. 
Who,  then,  was  the  builder?  To  what  age  belong 
these  structures?  Which  of  the  wars  we  read  about 
arc  here  portrayed  ?  None  of  these  questions, 
which  must  have  strangely  agitated  him,  could  Mr. 
Botta  have  answered  at  the  time.  But  not  the  less 
to  him  remains  the  glory  of  having,  first  of  living 
men,  entered  the  palace  of  an  Assyrian  king. 

18.  Mr.  Botta  henceforth  devoted  himself  exclu- 
sively to  the  mound  of  Khorsabad.  His  discovery 
created  an  immense  sensation  in  Europe.  Scholarly 
indifference  was  not  proof  against  so  unlooked-for 
a  shock ;  the  revulsion  was  complete  and  the  spirit 
of  research  and  enterprise  was  effectually  aroused, 
not  to  slumber  again.  The  French  consul  was  sup- 
plied by  his  government  with  ample  means  to  carry 
on  excavations  on  a  large  scale.  If  the  first  success 
may  be  considered  as  merely  a  great  piece  of  good 
fortune,  the   following  ones  Avere   certainly  due  to 


MESOrOTAMfA. 


17 


intelligent,  untiring  labor  and  ingenuous  scholarship. 
We  see  the  results  in  Botta's  voluminous  work 
"  Monuments  de  Ninive  "  *  and  in  the  fine  Assyr- 
ian collection  of  the  Louvre,  in  the  first  room  of 
which  is  placed,  as  is  but  just,  the  portrait  of  the 
man  to  whose  efforts  and  devotion  it  is  due, 

19.  The  great  English  investigator  Layard,  then 
a  young  and  enthusiastic  scholar  on  his  Eastern  trav- 
els, passing  through  Mossul  in  1842,  found  Mr.  Botta 
engaged  on  his  first  and  unpromising  attempts  at 
Koyunjik,  and  subsequently  wrote  to  him  from 
Constantinople  exhorting  him  to  persist  and  not 
give  up  his  hopes  of  success.  He  was  one  of  the 
first  to  hear  of  the  astounding  news  from  Khorsa- 
bad,  and  immediately  determined  to  carry  out  a 
long-cherished  project  of  his  own,  that  of  exploring 
a  large  mound  known  among  the  Arabs  under  the 
name  of  NiMRUD,  and  situated  somewhat  lower  on 
the  Tigris,  near  that  river's  junction  with  one  of  its 
chief  tributaries,  the  Zab.  The  dif^culty  lay  in 
procuring  the  necessary  funds.  Neither  the  trus- 
tees of  the  British  Museum  nor  the  English  Govern- 
ment were  at  first  willing  to  incur  such  considerable 
expense  on  what  was  still  looked  upon  as  very  un- 
certain chances.  It  was  a  private  gentleman,  Sir 
Stratford  Canning,  then  English  minister  at  Con- 
stantinople, who  generously  came  forward,  and 
announced  himself  willing  to  meet  the  outlay  with- 
in certain  limits,  while  authorities  at  home  were  to 

*  In  five  huge  folio  volumes,  one  of  text,  two  of  inscriptions,  and 
two  of  illustrations.  The  title  shows  that  Kotta  erroneously  imag- 
ined the  ruins  he  had  discovered  to  be  those  of  Nineveh  itself. 


1 8  IXTKOm'CTJOX. 

be  solicited  and  worked  upon.  So  Mr.  Layard  was 
enabled  to  begin  operations  on  the  mound  which 
he  had  specially  selected  for  himself  in  the  autumn 
of  1845,  the  year  after  that  in  which  the  building  of 
Khorsabad  was  finally  laid  open  by  Botta.  The 
results  of  his  expedition  were  so  startlingly  vast  and 
important,  and  the  particulars  of  his  work  on  the 
Assyrian  plains  are  so  interesting  and  picturesque, 
that  they  will  furnish  ample  materials  for  a  separate 
chapter. 


I^C^^^BCS^^^H 

S^5B 

p^"miiiijll 

^^i^^^^^^ 

f(  II m(^,^^ 

■^^^'"'3^^^^ 

^^K^^hI 

i^^fel 

WL 

^fl^^^^^ 

wS^ 

II. 

LAYARD    AND    HIS   WORK. 

I.  In  the  first  part  of  November,  1845,  ^^'^  ^^^  the 
enthusiastic  and  enterprising  young  scholar  on  the 
scene  of  his  future  exertions  and  triumphs.  His 
first  night  in  the  wilderness,  in  a  ruinous  Arab  vil- 
lage amidst  the  smaller  mounds  of  Nimrud,  is 
vividly  described  by  him  :- — "  I  slept  little  during 
the  night.  The  hovel  in  which  we  had  taken  shel- 
ter, and  its  inmates,  did  not  invite  slumber ;  but 
such  scenes  and  companions  were  not  new  to  me  ; 
they  could  have  been  forgotten,  had  my  brain  been 
less  excited.  Hopes,  long-cherished,  were  now  to 
be  realized,  or  were  to  end  in  disappointment. 
Visions  of  palaces  underground,  of  gigantic  mon- 
sters, of  sculptured  figures,  and  endless  inscriptions 
floated  before  me.  After  forming  plan  after  plan 
for  removing  the  earth,  and  extricating  these  treas- 
ures, I  fancied  myself  wandering  in  a  maze  of 
chambers  from  which  I  could  find  no  outlet.  Then 
again,  all  was  reburied,  and  I  was  standing  on  the 
grass-covered  mound." 

2.  Although  not  doomed  to  disappointment  in 
the  end,  these  hopes  were  yet  to  be  thwarted  in 
many  ways  before  the  visions  of  that  night  became 

19 


20 


INTRODUCTION. 


reality  For  many  and  various  were  the  difficulties 
which  Layard  had  to  contend  with  during  the  fol- 
lowing months  as  well  as  during  his  second  expedi- 
tion in  1848.  The  material  hardships  of  perpetual 
camping  out  in  an  uncongenial  climate,  without  any 
of  the  simplest  conveniences  of  life,  and  the  fevers 
and  sickness  repeatedly  brought  on  by  exposure  to 
winter  rains  and  summer  heat,  should  perhaps  be 
counted  among  the  least  of  them,  for  they  had  their 
compensations.  Not  so  the  ignorant  and  ill-natured 
opposition,  open  or  covert,  of  the  Turkish  authori- 
ties. That  was  an  evil  to  which  no  amount  of  phi- 
losophy could  ever  fully  reconcile  him.  His  expe- 
riences in  that  line  form  an  amusing  collection. 
Luckily,  the  first  was  also  the  worst.  The  pasha 
whom  he  found  installed  at  Mossul  was,  in  appear- 
ance and  temper,  more  like  an  ogre  than  a  man. 
He  was  the  terror  of  the  country.  His  cruelty  and 
rapacity  knew  no  bounds.  When  he  sent  his  tax- 
collectors  on  their  dreaded  round,  he  used  to  dis- 
miss them  with  this  short  and  pithy  instruction : 
"Go,  destroy,  eat !  "  (i.e.  "  plunder  "),  and  for  his 
own  profit  had  revived  several  kinds  of  contribu- 
tions which  had  been  suffered  to  fall  into  disuse,  es- 
pecially one  called  "tooth-money," — "a  compensa- 
tion in  money,  levied  upon  all  villages  in  which  a 
man  of  such  rank  is  entertained,  for  the  wear  and 
tear  of  his  teeth  in  masticating  the  food  he  conde- 
scends to  receive  from  the  inhabitants." 

3.  The  letters  with  which  Layard  was  provided 
secured  him  a  gracious  reception  from  this  amiable 
personage,  who   allowed   him   to  begin    operations 


LA  YARD  AND  HIS  IVORA:  21 

on    the    -reat    mound   of    Nimrud  with    the    party 
of   Arab^'workmcn    whom    he    had    hired    for    the 
purpose.     Some  time  after,  it  came  to  the   Pasha  s 
knowledge   that  a  few  fragments  of  gold   leaf  had 
been   found   in  the   rubbish  and  he   even  procured 
a  small  particle  as  sample.     He  immediately  con- 
cluded  as  the  Arab  chief  had  done,  that  the   Eng- 
lish traveller  was  digging  for  hidden  trcasure-an 
object  far  more   intelligible  to  them  than  that  of 
disinterring  and  carrying  home  a  quantity  of  old 
broken  stones.     This  incident,  by  arousing  the  great 
man's  rapacity,  might   have    caused  him  to  put  a 
stop  to  all   further  search,   had    not  Layard,  who 
well  knew  that  treasure  of  this  kind  was  not   likely 
to  be  plentiful   in   the  ruins,  immediately  proposed 
that  his   Excellency  should  keep  an   agent  at  the 
mound,  to  take   charge   of  all  the  precious  metals 
which  might  be  discovered   there  in  the  course   of 
the  excavations.     The   Pasha  raised   no  objections 
at  the   moment,  but  a  few  days  later  announced  to 
Layard  that,  to  his  great  regret,  he  felt  it  his  duty 
to  forbid  the  continuation  of  the  work,  since  he  had 
just    learned    that    the   diggers   were    disturbing   a 
Mussulman  burying-ground.     As  the  tombs  of  true 
believers  are  held  very  sacred    and    inviolable  by 
Mohammedans,  this  would  have  been  a  fatal  obsta- 
cle had  not  one   of  the  Pasha's  own  officers  confi- 
dentially disclosed  to  Layard  that  the  tombs  were 
sham  ones,  that  he  and  his  men  had   been  secretly 
employed  to  fabricate  them,  and  for  two  nights  had 
been    bringing   stones    for   the    purpose    from    the 
surrounding   villages.     "We  have  destroyed   more 


22  IA'TROnCCTIOh\ 

tombs  of  true  believers,"  said  the  Aga, — (officer) — 
"  in  making  sham  ones,  than  ever  you  could  have 
defiled.  We  have  killed  our  horses  and  ourselves 
in  carrying  those  accursed  stones."  Fortunately 
the  Pasha,  whose  misdeeds  could  not  be  tolerated 
even  by  a  Turkish  government,  was  recalled  about 
Christmas,  and  succeeded  by  an  official  of  an  en- 
tirely different  stamp,  a  man  whose  reputation  for 
justice  and  mildness  had  preceded  him,  and  whose 
arrival  was  accordingly  greeted  with  public  rejoic- 
ings. Operations  at  the  mound  now  proceeded  for 
some  time  rapidly  and  successfully.  But  this  very 
success  at  one  time  raised  new  difficulties  for  our 
explorers. 

4.  One  day.  as  Layard  was  returning  to  the 
mound  from  an  excursion,  he  was  met  on  the  way 
by  two  Arabs  who  had  ridden  out  to  meet  him  at 
full  speed,  and  from  a  distance  shouted  to  him  in 
the  wildest  excitement:  "  Hasten,  O  Bey!  hasten 
to  the  diggers!  for  they  have  found  Nimrod  him- 
self. It  is  wonderful,  but  it  is  true !  we  have  seen 
him  with  our  eyes.  There  is  no  God  but  God  !  " 
Greatly  puzzled,  he  hurried  on  and,  descending  into 
the  trench,  found  that  the  workmen  had  uncovered 
a  gigantic  head,  the  body  to  which  was  still  im- 
bedded in  earth  and  rubbish.  This  head,  beauti- 
fully sculptured  in  the  alabaster  furnished  by  the 
neighboring  hills,  surpassed  in  height  the  tallest 
man  present.  The  great  shapely  features,  in  their 
majestic  repose,  seemed  to  guard  some  mighty 
secret  and  to  defy  the  bustling  curiosity  of  those 
who  gazed  on  them  in  wonder  and  fear.     "  One  of 


LA  YARD  AND  HIS  WORK. 


21 


the  workmen,  on   catchini^  the    first  glimpse  of  the 
monster,  had   thrown  down  his  basket   and   run   off 
toward  Mossul  as  fast  as  his  legs  could  carry  him." 
5.  The    Arabs    came    in    crowds    from    the     sur- 


2. — DISCOVERY   OF    GIGANTIC    HEAD. 
(Layard's  "  Nineveh.") 

rounding  encampments ;  they  could  scarcely  be 
persuaded  that  the  image  was  of  stone,  and  con- 
tended that  it  was  not  the  work  of  men's  hands, 
but  of  infidel  giants  of  olden  times.  The  com- 
motion soon  spread  to  Mossul,  where  the  terrified 
workman,    "entering    breathless    into    the    bazars.. 


24 


IN  TROD  UC  T/OX. 


announced  to  every  one  he  met  that  Nimrod 
had  appeared."  The  authorities  of  the  town  were 
alarmed,  put  their  heads  together  and  decided  that 
such  idolatrous  proceedings  were  an  outrage  to  re- 
ligion. The  consequence  was  that  Layard  was  re- 
quested by  his  friend  Ismail-Pasha  to  suspend 
operations  for  awhile,  until  the  excitement  should 
have  subsided,  a  request  w^th  which  he  thought  it 
wisest  to  comply  without  remonstrance,  lest  the 
people  of  Mossul  might  come  out  in  force  and  deal 
with  his  precious  find  as  they  had  done  with  the 
sculptured  figure  at  Koyunjik  in  Rich's  time.  The 
alarm,  however,  did  not  last  long.  Both  Arabs  and 
Turks  soon  became  familiar  with  the  strange  crea- 
tions which  kept  emerging  out  of  the  earth,  and 
learned  to  discuss  them  with  great  calm  and  grav- 
ity. The  colossal  bulls  and  lions  with  wings  and 
human  heads,  of  which  several  pairs  were  discov- 
ered, some  of  them  in  a  state  of  perfect  preserva- 
tion, were  especially  the  objects  of  wonder  and  con- 
jectures, which  generally  ended  in  a  curse  "  on  all 
infidels  and  their  works,"  the  conclusion  arrived  at 
being  that  "  the  idols  "  w^ere  to  be  sent  to  England,  to 
form  gateways  to  the  palace  of  the  Queen.  And 
when  some  of  these  giants,  now  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum, were  actually  removed,  with  infinite  pains 
and  labor,  to  be  dragged  down  to  the  Tigris,  and 
floated  down  the  river  on  rafts,  there  was  no  end  to 
the  astonishment  of  Layard's  simple  friends.  On 
one  such  occasion  an  Arab  Sheikh,  or  chieftain, 
whose  tribe  had  engaged  to  assist  in  moving  one  of 
the  winged  bulls,  opened  his  heart  to  him.     "  In  the 


LA  YARD  AND  HIS  WORK.  25 

name  of  the  Most  High,"  said  he,  "tell  me,  O  Bey, 
what  you  are  going  to  do  with  these  stones.  So 
many  thousands  of  purses  spent  on  such  things ! 
Can  it  be,  as  you  say,  that  your  people  learn  wisdom 
from  them?  or  is  it  as  his  reverence  the  Cadi  de- 
clares, that  they  are  to  go  to  the  palace  of  your 
Queen,  who,  with  the  rest  of  the  unbelievers,  wor- 
ships these  idols?  As  for  wisdom,  these  figures 
will  not  teach  you  to  make  any  better  knives,  or  scis- 
sors, or  chintzes  ,  and  it  is  in  the  making  of  these 
things  that  the  English  show  their  wisdom." 

6.  Such  was  the  view  very  generally  taken  of 
La)'ard's  work  by  both  Turks  and  Arabs,  from  the 
Pasha  down  to  the  humblest  digger  in  his  band  of 
laborers,  and  he  seldom  felt  called  upon  to  play 
the  missionary  of  science,  knowing  as  he  did  that  all 
such  efforts  would  be  but  wasted  breath.  This  want 
of  intellectual  sympathy  did  not  prevent  the  best 
understanding  from  existing  between  himself  and 
these  rangers  of  the  desert.  The  primitive  life 
which  he  led  amongst  them  for  so  many  months, 
the  kindly  hospitality  which  he  invariably  experi- 
enced at  their  hands  during  the  excursions  made 
and  the  visits  he  paid  to  different  Bedouin  tribes  in 
the  intervals  of  recreation  which  he  was  compelled  to 
allow  himself  from  time  to  time — these  are  among 
the  most  pleasurable  memories  of  those  wonderful, 
dreamlike  years.  He  lingers  on  them  lovingly  and 
retraces  them  through  many  a  page  of  both  his 
books* — pages  which,   for  their  picturesque  vivid- 

*  "  Nineveh  and  its  Remains,"  and  "  Discoveries  m  Nineveh  and 
Babylon.*" 


26  INTKODUCTJOX. 

ness,  must  be  perused  with  delight  even  by  such  as 
are  but  slightly  interested  in  the  discovery  of  buried 
palaces  and  winged  bulls.  One  longs  to  have 
been  with  him  through  some  of  those  peerless 
evenings  when,  after  a  long  day's  work,  he  sat 
before  his  cabin  in  the  cool  starlight,  watching 
the  dances  with  which  those  indefatigable  Arabs, 
men  and  women,  solaced  themselves  deep  into  the 
night,  while  the  encampment  was  lively  with  the 
hum  of  voices,  and  the  fires  lit  to  prepare  the  simple 
meal.  One  longs  to  have  shared  in  some  of  those 
brisk  rides  across  plains  so  thickly  enamelled  with 
flowers,  that  it  seemed  a  patchwork  of  many  col- 
ors, and  "  the  dogs,  as  they  returned  from  hunt- 
ing, issued  from  the  long  grass  dyed  red,  yellow,  or 
blue,  according  to  the  flowers  through  which  they 
had  last  forced  their  way," — the  joy  of  the  Arab's 
soul,  which  made  the  chief,  Layard's  friend,  contin- 
ually exclaim,  "  rioting  in  the  luxuriant  herbage 
and  scented  air,  as  his  mare  waded  through  the 
flowers : — *  What  delight  has  God  given  us  equal  to 
this?  It  is  the  only  thing  worth  living  for.  What 
do  the  dwellers  in  cities  know  of  true  happiness? 
They  never  have  seen  grass  or  flowers !  May  God 
have  pity  on  them  ! ' "  How  glorious  to  watch  the 
face  of  the  desert  changing  its  colors  almost  from 
day  to  day,  white  succeeding  to  pale  straw  color, 
red  to  white,  blue  to  red,  lilac  to  blue,  and  bright 
gold  to  that,  according  to  the  flowers  with  which  it 
decked  itself!  Out  of  sight  stretches  the  gorgeous 
carpet,  dotted  with  the  black  camel's-hair  tents  of 
the  Arabs,  enlivened  with  flocks  of  sheep  and  camels, 


LA  YARD  AXD  H/S  IVOR  A'. 


27 


and  whole  studs  of  horses  of  noble  breed  which  are 
brought  out  from  Mossul  and  left  to  graze  at  liberty, 
in  the  days  of  hcaltfiy  breezes  and  fragrant  pastures. 

7.  So  much  for  spring.  A  beautiful,  a  perfect  sea- 
son, but  unfortunately  as  brief  as  it  is  lovely,  and 
too  soon  succeeded  by  the  terrible  heat  and  long 
drought  of  summer,  which  sometimes  set  in  so  sud- 
denly as  hardly  to  give  the  few  villagers  time  to 
gather  in  their  crops.  Chaldea  or  Lower  Mesopo- 
tamia is  in  this  respect  even  worse  off  than  the 
higher  plains  of  Assyria.  A  temperature  of  120° 
in  the  shade  is  no  unusual  occurrence  in  Baghdad  ; 
true,  it  can  be  reduced  to  100°  in  the  cellars  of 
the  houses  by  carefully  excluding  the  faintest  ray 
of  light,  and  it  is  there  that  the  inhabitants  mostly 
spend  their  days  in  summer.  The  oppression  is 
such  that  Europeans  are  entirely  unmanned  and 
unfitted  for  any  kind  of  activity.  "  Camels  sicken, 
and  birds  are  so  distressed  by  the  high  temperature, 
that  they  sit  in  the  date-trees  about  Baghdad,  with 
their  mouths  open,  panting  for  fresh  air."  * 

8.  But  the  most  frightful  feature  of  a  Mesopota- 
mian  summer  is  the  frequent  and  violent  sand- 
storms, during  which  travellers,  in  addition  to  all  the 
dangers  offered  by  snow-storms — being  buried  alive 
and  losing  their  way — are  exposed  to  that  of  suffo- 
cation not  only  from  the  furnace-like  heat  of  the 
desert-wind,  but  from  the  impalpable  sand,  which  is 

whirled  and  driven  before  it,  and  fills  the  eyes,  mouth 

• 

*  Rawlinson's  "  Five  Great   Monarchies  of  the  Ancient  World," 
Vol.  I.,  Chap.  II. 


28  INTRODUCTfON. 

and  nostrils  of  horse  and  rider.  The  three  miles'  ride 
from  Layard's  encampment  to  the  mound  of  Nim- 
rud  must  have  been  somethin<^  more  than  pleasant 
morning  exercise  in  such  a  season,  and  though  the 
deep  trenches  and  wells  afforded  a  comparativcU' 
cool  and  delightful  retreat,  he  soon  found  that  fever 
was  the  price  to  be  paid  for  the  indulgence,  and  was 
repeatedly  laid  up  with  it.  "The  verdure  of  the 
plain,"  he  says  in  one  place,  "had  perished  almost 
in  a  day.  Hot  winds,  coming  from  the  desert,  had 
burnt  up  and  carried  away  the  shrubs ;  flights  of 
locusts,  darkening  the  air,  had  destroyed  the  few 
patches  of  cultivation,  and  had  completed  the  havoc 
commenced  by  the  heat  of  the  sun.  .  .  .  Violent 
whirlwinds  occasionally  swept  over  the  face  of  the 
country.  They  could  be  seen  as  they  advanced 
from  the  desert,  carrying  along  with  them  clouds  of 
dust  and  sand.  Almost  utter  darkness  prevailed 
during  their  passage,  which  lasted  generally  about 
an  hour,  and  nothing  could  resist  their  fury.  On 
returning  home  one  afternoon  after  a  tempest  of 
the  kind,  I  found  no  traces  of  my  dwellings ;  they 
had  been  completely  carried  away.  Ponderous 
wooden  frame-works  had  been  borne  over  the  bank 
and  hurled  some  hundred  yards  distant  ;  the  tents 
had  disappeared,  and  my  furniture  was  scattered 
over  the  plain." 

9.  Fortunately  it  would  not  require  much  labor 
to  restore  the  wooden  frames  to  their  proper  place 
and  reconstruct  the  reed-plaited,  mud-plastered  walls 
as  well  as  the  roof  composed  of  reeds  and  boughs — 
such  being  the  sumptuous  residences  of  which  Lay- 


LA  YARD  AND  HIS  WORK.  29 

arc!  shared  the  largest  with  various  domestic  animals, 
from  whose  immediate  companionship  he  was  saved 
by  a  thin  partition,  the  other  hovels  being  devoted 
to  the  wives,  children  and  poultry  of  his  host,  to  his 
own  servants  and  different  household  uses.     But  the 
time  came  when  not  even  this  accommodation,  poor 
as  it  was,  could  be  enjoyed  with  any  degree  of  com- 
fort     When  the  summer  heat  set  in  in  earnest,  the 
huts  became  uninhabitable  from  their  closeness  and 
the  vermin  with  which  they  swarmed,  while  a  can- 
vas tent,  though   far  preferable  in  the  way  of  airi- 
ness and  cleanliness,  did  not  afford  sufficient  shelter. 
10    "  In  this  dilemma,"  says  Layard,  "  I  ordered  a 
recess  to  be  cut  into  the  bank  of  the  river  where 
it  rose  perpendicularly  from  the  water's  edge.     By 
screening  the  front  with  reeds  and  boughs  of  trees 
and  covering  the  whole  with  similar  materials,  a  small 
room  was  formed.     I  was  much  troubled,  however, 
with  scorpions  and  other  reptiles,  which  issued  from 
the  earth  forming  the  walls  of  my  apartment  ;  and 
later  in  the    summer   by   the    gnats   and    sandflies 
which  hovered  on  a  calm  night  over  the  river."     It 
is  dif^cult  to  decide  between  the   respective  merits 
of    this    novel    summer    retreat    and  of  the    winter 
dwelling,    ambitiously    constructed  of    mud    bricks 
dried   in   the   sun,   and    roofed  with    solid    wooden 
beams.     This  imposing  residence,  in  which  Layard 
spent  the  last  months  of  his  f^rst  winter  in  Assyria 
would  have  been  sufficient  protection  against  wind 
and   weather,  after  it    had  been  duly  coated  with 
mud      Unfortunately  a  heavy  shower  fell  before  it 
was  quite  completed,   and   so   saturated  the  bricks 


30 


INTRODUCTION. 


that  they  did  not  dry  again  before  the  following 
spring.  "  The  consequence  was,"  he  pleasantly  re- 
marks, "  that  the  only  verdure  on  which  my  eyes 
were  permitted  to  feast  before  my  return  to  Europe, 
was  furnished  by  my  own  property — the  walls  in  the 
interior  of  the  rooms  being  continually  clothed  with 
a  crop  of  grass." 

11.  These  few  indications  arc  sufficient  to  give  a 
tolerably  clear  idea  of  what  might  be  called  "  Pleas- 
ures and  hardships  of  an  explorer's  life  in  the  desert." 
As  for  the  work  itself,  it  is  simple  enough  in  the 
telling,  although  it  must  have  been  extremely  weari- 
some and  laborious  in  the  performance.  The  sim- 
plest way  to  get  at  the  contents  of  a  mound,  would 
be  to  remove  all  the  earth  and  rubbish  by  carting 
it  away, — a  piece  of  work  which  our  searchers  might 
no  doubt  have  accomplished  with  great  facility,  had 
they  had  at  their  disposal  a  few  scores  of  thousands 
of  slaves  and  captives,  as  had  the  ancient  kings  who 
built  the  huge  constructions  the  ruins  of  which  had 
now  to  be  disinterred.  With  a  hundred  or  two  of 
hired  workmen  and  very  limited  funds,  the  case  was 
slightly  different.  The  task  really  amounted  to  this; 
to  achieve  the  greatest  possible  results  at  the  least 
possible  expense  of  labor  and  time,  and  this  is  how 
such  excavations  are  carried  out  on  a  plan  uni- 
formly followed  everywhere  as  the  most  practical 
and  direct : 

12.  Trenches,  more  or  less  wide,  are  conducted 
from  different  sides  towards  the  centre  of  the  mound. 
This  is  obviously  the  surest  and  shortest  way  to 
arrive   at  whatever    remains  of    walls    may   be    im- 


3- — EXCAVATIONS  AT  KOYUNJIK. 
(Layard's  "Nineveh  and  Babylon.") 


32 


IX  TROD  i'C  T/Oy. 


bedded  in  it.  But  even  this  preliminary  operation 
has  to  be  carried  out  with  some  judgment  and  dis- 
cernment. It  is  known  that  the  Chaldeans  and 
Assyrians  constructed  their  palaces  and  temples  not 
upon  the  level,  natural  soil,  but  upon  an  artificial 
platform  of  brick  and  earth,  at  least  thirty  feet  high. 
This  platform  was  faced  on  all  sides  with  a  strong 
wall  of  solid  burned  brick,  often  moreover  cased 
with  stone.  A  trench  dug  straight  from  the  plain 
into  the  lower  part  of  the  mound  would  conse- 
quently be  wasted  labor,  since  it  could  never  bring 
to  anything  but  that  same  blind  wall,  behind  which 
there  is  only  the  solid  mass  of  the  platform.  Dig- 
ging therefore  begins  in  the  slope  of  the  mound,  at 
a  height  corresponding  to  the  supposed  height  of 
the  platform,  and  is  carried  on  straight  across  its 
surface  until  a  wall  is  reached, — a  wall  belonging  to 
one  of  the  palaces  or  temples.  This  wall  has  then 
to  be  followed,  till  a  break  in  it  is  found,  indicating 
an  entrance  or  doorway.  The  burrowing  process 
becomes  more  and  more  complicated,  and  some- 
times dangerous.  Shafts  have  to  be  sunk  from 
above  at  frequent  intervals  to  introduce  air  and  light 
into  the  long  and  narrow  corridor  ;  the  sides  and 
vault  have  to  be  propped  by  beams  to  prevent  the 
soft  earthy  mass  from  falling  in  and  crushing  the 
diggers.  Every  shovelful  of  earth  cleared  away  is 
removed  in  baskets  which  are  passed  from  hand  to 
hand  till  they  are  emptied  outside  the  trench,  or  else 
lowered  empty  and  sent  up  full,  through  the  shafts 
by  means  of  ropes  and  pulleys,  to  be  emptied  on  the 
top.     When  a  doorway  is  reached,  it   is  cleared   all 


4- — EXCAVATIONS   AT   KOYUNJIK    (FISH-GOD). 
(Layard's  "  Nineveh  and  Babylon.") 


34 


IXTNOnrCTION. 


through  the  thickness  of  the  wall,  which  is  very 
great ;  then  a  similar  tunnel  is  conducted  all  along 
the  inside  of  the  wall,  the  greatest  care  being  needed 
not  to  damage  the  sculptures  which  generally  line  it, 
and  which,  as  it  is,  are  more  or  less  injured  and 
cracked,  their  upper  parts  sometimes  entirely  de- 
stroyed by  the  action  of  fire.  When  the  tunnel  has 
been  carried  along  the  four  sides,  every  doorway  or 
portal  carefully  noted  and  cleared,  it  is  seen  from  the 
measurements, — especially  the  width — whether  the 
space  explored  be  an  inner  court,  a  hall  or  a  cham- 
ber. If  the  latter,  it  is  eometimes  entirely  cleared 
from  above,  when  the  rubbish  frequently  yields 
valuable  finds  in  the  shape  of  various  small 
articles.  The  chamber  at  Koyunjik  represented 
on  No.  7  proved  a  perfect  mine  of  treasures. 
The  most  curious  relics  were  brought  to  light  in  it  : 
quantities  of  studs  and  small  rosettes  in  mother- 
of-pearl,  ivory  and  metal,  such  as  were  used  to 
ornament  the  harness  of  the  war-horses,  bowls, 
cups,  and  dishes  of  bronze,  besides  caldrons,  shields 
and  other  items  of  armor,  even  glass  bowls,  lastly 
fragments  of  a  royal  throne — possibly  the  very 
throne  on  which  King  Sennacherib  sat  to  give 
audience  or  pronounce  judgments,  for  the  palace 
at  Koyunjik  where  these  objects  were  found  was 
built  by  that  monarch  long  familiar  to  us  only  from 
the  Bible,  and  the  sculptures  and  inscriptions  which 
cover  its  walls  are  the  annals  of  his  conquests  abroad 
and  his  rule  at  home. 

A  description  of  the  removal  of  the  colossal  bulls 
and  lions  which  were  shipped  to  England  and  now 


LA  YARD  AND  INS  WORK. 


35 


are  safely  housed  in  the  British  Museum,  ought  by 
rights  to  form  the  close  of  a  chapter  devoted  to 
"  Layard  and  his  work."     But  the  illustrations  must 


5. — TUNNEL    ALONC    WALL. 
(Layard's  "  Nineveh  and  Babylon.") 

suflfice  ;  the  vivid  and  entertaining  narrative  should 
be  read  in  the  original,  as  the  passages  are  too  long 
for  transcription,  and  would  be  marred  by  quoting. 


^M*Vr>a!^^cV 

IP 

yx^^y-^-jBb^^ 

^ 

III. 


THE   RUINS. 

"  And  thev  said  to  one  another,  Go  to,  let  us  make  brick,  and  burn 
them  throughly.  And  they  had  brick  for  stone  and  slime  for  mor- 
tar."— Gen.  xi.  3. 

1.  It  is  a  principle,  long  ago  laid  down  and  univer- 
sally recognized,  that  every  country  makes  its  own 
people.  That  is,  the  fnode  of  life  and  the  intellect- 
ual culture  of  a  people  are  shaped  by  the  character- 
istic features  of  the  land  in  which  it  dwells;  or,  in 
other  words,  men  can  live  only  in  a  manner  suited 
to  the  peculiarities  of  their  native  country.  Men 
settled  along  the  sea-shore  will  lead  a  different  life, 
will  develop  different  qualities  of  mind  and  body 
from  the  owners  of  vast  inland  pasture-grounds  or 
the  holders  of  rugged  mountain  fastnesses.  They 
will  all  dress  differently,  eat  different  food,  follow 
different  pursuits.  Their  very  dwellings  and  public 
buildings  will  present  an  entirely  different  aspect, 
according  to  the  material  which  they  will  have  at 
hand  in  the  greatest  abundance,  be  it  stone,  wood 
or  any  other  substance  suitable  for  the  purpose. 
Thus  every  country  will  create  its  own  peculiar 
style  of  art,  determined  chiefly  by  its  own  natural 
productions.     On  these,  architecture,  the  art  of  the 

36 


TlIK  AW. VS. 


37 


builder,    will    be    e\'eii    more    dependent    than    any 
other. 

2.   It  would  seem  as  though    Chaldea  or    Lower 
Mesopotamia,  regarded  from  this  point  of  view,  could 


6. — TUNNEL   ALONG    WALL. 
(Layard's  "  Nineveh  and  Babylon.") 

never  have  originated  an}'  architecture  at  all,  for  it 
is^  at  first  sight,  absolutely  deficient  in  building 
materials  of  an)-  sort.  The  whole  land  is  alluvial, 
that    is,   formed,    gradually,    through   thousands    of 


38 


INTRODUCTION. 


years,  of  the  rich  mud  deposited  by  the  two  rivers, 
as  they  spread  into  vast  marshy  flats  towards  the 
end  of  their  course.  Such  soil,  when  hardened  into 
sufficient  consistency,  is  the  finest  of  all  for  cultiva- 
tion, and  a  greater  source  of  wealth  than  mines  of 
the  most  precious  ore;  but  it  bears  no  trees  and 
contains  no  stone.  The  people  who  were  first 
tempted  to  settle  in  the  lowlands  towards  the  Per- 
sian Gulf  by  the  extraordinary  fertility  of  that  re- 
gion, found  nothing  at  all  available  to  construct 
their  simple  dwellings — nothing  but  reeds  of  enor- 
mous size,  which  grew  there,  as  they  do  now,  in 
the  greatest  profusion.  These  reeds  "  cover  the 
marshes  in  the  summer-time,  rising  often  to  the 
height  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  feet.  The  Arabs  of 
the  marsh  region  form  their  houses  of  this  material, 
binding  the  stems  together  and  bending  them  into 
arches,  to  make  the  skeletons  of  their  buildings; 
while,  to  form  the  walls,  they  stretch  across  from 
arch  to  arch  mats  made  of  the  leaves."  * 

3.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  of  such  habitations 
consisted  the  villages  and  towns  of  those  first  set- 
tlers. They  gave  quite  sufficient  shelter  in  the  very 
mild  winters  of  that  region,  and,  when  coated  with  a 
layer  of  mud  which  soon  dried  and  hardened  in  the 
sun,  could  exclude  even  the  violent  rains  of  that  sea- 
son. But  they  were  in  no  way  fitted  for  more  am- 
bitious and  dignified  purposes.  Neither  the  palaces 
of  the  kings  nor  the  temples  of  the  gods  could  be 
constructed   out   of  bent   reeds.      Something   more 

*  Rawlinson's  "  Five  Monarchies,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  46. 


THE  RUINS. 


39 


durable  must  be  found,  some  material  that  would 
lend  itself  to  constructions  of  any  siz'^  or  shape. 
The  mud  coating  of  the  cabins  naturally  suggested 
such  a  material.  Could  not  this  same  mud  or  clay, 
of  which  an  inexhaustible  supply  was  always  on 
hand,  be  moulded  into  cakes  of  even  size,  and  after 
being  left  to  dry  in  the  sun,  be  piled  into  walls  of 


7. — EXCAVATED   CHAMBER,    KOYUNJIK. 
(Layard's  "  Nineveh  and  Babylon.") 

the  required  height  and  thickness?  And  so  men 
began  to  make  bricks.  It  was  found  that  the  clay 
gained  much  in  consistency  when  mixed  with  finely 
chopped  straw — another  article  of  which  the  coun- 
try, abounding  in  wheat  and  other  grains,  yielded 
unlimited  quantities.  But  even  with  this  improve- 
ment the  sun-dried  bricks  could  not  withstand  the 


40 


IN  TKODUC  T/O.V. 


continued  action  of  man}'  rainy  seasons,  or  many 
torrid  summers,  but  had  a  tendency  to  crumble 
away  when  parched  too  dry,  or  to  soak  and  dissolve 
back  into  mud,  when  too  long  exposed  to  rain. 
All  these  defects  were  removed  by  the  simple  ex- 
pedient of  baking  the  bricks  in  kilns  or  ovens,  a 
process  which  gives  them  the  hardness  and  solidity 
of  stone.  But  as  the  cost  of  kiln-dried  bricks  is 
naturally  very  much  greater  than  that  of  the  orig- 
inal crude  article,  so  the  latter  continued  to  be  used 
in  far  greater  quantities ;  the  walls  were  made  en- 
tirely of  them  and  only  protected  by  an  outward 
casing  of  the  hard  baked  bricks.  These  being  so 
much  more  expensive,  and  calculated  to  last  forever, 
great  care  was  bestowed  on  their  preparation ;  the 
best  clay  was  selected  and  they  were  stamped  with 
the  names  and  titles  of  the  king  by  whose  order  the 
palace  or  temple  was  built,  for  which  they  were  to 
be  used.  This  has  been  of  great  service  in  identi- 
f}'ing  the  various  ruins  and  assigning  them  dates,  at 
least  approximately.  As  is  to  be  expected,  there  is 
a  notable  difference  in  the  specimens  of  different 
periods.  While  on  some  bricks  bearing  the  name 
of  a  king  who  lived  about  3000  B.C.  the  inscription 
is  uncouth  and  scarcely  legible,  and  even  their 
shape  is  rude  and  the  material  very  inferior,  those 
of  the  later  Babylonian  period  (600  B.C.)  are  hand- 
some and  neatly  made.  As  to  the  quality,  all 
explorers  agree  in  saying  it  is  fully  equal  to  that 
of  the  best  modern  English  bricks.  The  excellence 
of  these  bricks  for  building  purposes  is  a  fact  so 
well  known  that  for  now  two  thousand  years — ever 


42 


IXTRODUCTION. 


since  the  destruction  of  Babylon — its  walls,  temples 
and  palaces  have  been  used  as  quarries  for  the  con- 
struction of  cities  and  \illages.  The  little  town  of 
HiLLAH,  situated  nearest  to  the  site  of  the  ancient 
capital,  is  built  almost  entirely  with  bricks  from  one 
single  mound,  that  of  Kask — once  the  gorgeous 
and  far-famed  palace  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  whose 
name  and  titles  thus  grace  the  walls  of  the  most 
lowly  Arab  and  Turkish  dwellings.  All  the  other 
mounds  are  similarly  used,  and  so  far  is  the  valuable 
mine  from  being  exhausted,  that  it  furnishes  forth, 
to  this  day,  a  brisk  and  flourishing  trade.  While 
a  party  of  workmen  is  continually  employed  in  dig- 
ging for  the  available  bricks,  another  is  busy  con- 
veying them  to  Hillah  ;  there  they  are  shipped  on 
the  Euphrates  and  carried  to  any  place  where  build- 
ing materials  are  in  demand,  often  even  loaded  on 
donkeys  at  this  or  that  landing-place  and  sent  miles 
away  inland  ;  some  are  taken  as  far  as  Baghdad, 
where  they  have  been  used  for  ages.  The  same 
thing  is  done  wherever  there  are  mounds  and  ruins. 
Both  Layard  and  his  successors  had  to  allow  their 
Arab  workmen  to  build  their  own  temporary  houses 
out  of  ancient  bricks,  only  watching  them  narrowly, 
lest  they  should  break  some  valuable  relic  in  the 
process  or  use  some  of  the  handsomest  and  best- 
preserved  specimens. 

4.  No  construction  of  bricks,  either  crude  or  kiln- 
dried,  could  have  sufficient  solidity  without  the  help 
of  some  kind  of  cement,  to  make  them  adhere 
firmly  together.  This  also  the  lowlands  of  Chaldea 
and   Babylonia  yield  in   sufficient  quantity  and  of 


9- — liUlLDlNG    IN    IJAKED    BRICK    (MODERN) 
(Perrot  and  Chippiez.) 


44  INTRODUCTION. 

various  qualities.  While  in  the  early  structures  a 
kind  of  sticky  red  clay  or  loam  is  used,  mixed  with 
chopped  straw,  bitumen  or  pitch  is  substituted  at  a 
later  period,  which  substance,  being  applied  hot, 
adheres  so  firmly  to  the  bricks,  that  pieces  of  these 
are  broken  off  when  an  attempt  is  made  to  procure 
a  fragment  of  the  cement.  This  valuable  article 
was  brought  down  by  water  from  Hit  on  the 
Euphrates  (now  called  Is),  where  abundant  springs 
of  bitumen  are  to  this  day  in  activity.  Calcareous 
earth — i.e.,  earth  strongly  mixed  with  lime — being 
very  plentiful  to  the  west  of  the  lower  Euphrates, 
towards  the  Arabian  frontier,  the  Babylonians  of 
the  latest  times  learned  to  make  of  it  a  white  mor- 
tar which,  for  lightness  and  strength,  has  never  been 
surpassed. 

5.  All  the  essential  materials  for  plain  but  dur- 
able constructions  being  thus  procurable  on  the 
spot  or  in  the  immediate  neighborhood,  the  next 
important  point  was  the  selection  of  proper  sites  for 
raising  these  constructions,  which  were  to  serve 
purposes  of  defence  as  well  as  of  worship  and  royal 
majesty.  A  rocky  eminence,  inaccessible  on  one  or 
several  sides,  or  at  least  a  hill,  a  knoll  somewhat  ele- 
vated above  the  surrounding  plain,  have  usually 
been  chosen  wherever  such  existed.  But  this  was 
not  the  case  in  Chaldea.  There,  as  far  as  eye  can 
see,  not  the  slightest  undulation  breaks  the  dead 
flatness  of  the  land.  Yet  there,  more  than  any- 
where else,  an  elevated  position  was  desirable,  if 
only  as  a  protection  from  the  unhealthy  exhalations 
of  a  vast  tract  of  swamps,  and  from  the  intolerable 


46 


IN  TROD  UC  TION. 


nuisance  of  swarms  of  aggressive  and  venomous 
insects,  which  infest  the  entire  river  region  during 
the  long  summer  season.  Safety  from  the  attacks 
of  the  numerous  roaming  tribes  which  ranged  the 
country  in  every  direction  before  it  was  definitely 
settled  and  organized,  was  also  not  among  the  last 
considerations.  So,  what  nature  had  refused,  the 
cunning  and  labor  of  man  had  to  supply.  Artificial 
hills  or  platforms  were  constructed,  of  enormous 
size  and  great  height — from  thirty  to  fifty,  even 
sixty  feet,  and  on  their  fiat  summits  the  buildings 
were  raised.  These  platforms  sometimes  supported 
onl)'  one  palace,  sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
immense  mounds  of  Koyunjik  and  Nimrud  in  As- 
syria, their  surface  had  room  for  several,  built  by 
successive  kings.  Of  course  such  huge  piles  could 
not  be  entirely  executed  in  solid  masonry,  even  of 
crude  bricks.  These  were  generally  mixed  with 
earth  and  rubbish  of  all  kinds,  in  more  or  less  regu- 
lar, alternate  layers,  the  bricks  being  laid  in  clay. 
But  the  outward  facing  was  in  all  cases  of  baked 
brick.  The  platform  of  the  principal  mound  which 
marks  the  place  of  ancient  Ur,  (now  called  MuG- 
heir),"  is  faced  with  a  wall  ten  feet  thick,  of  red 
kiln-dried  bricks,  cemented  with  bitumen.  In  As- 
syria, where  stone  was  not  scarce,  the  sides  of  the 
platform  were  even  more  frequently  "  protected 
by  massive  stone-masonry,  carried  perpendicularly 
from  the  natural  ground  to  a  height  somewhat 
exceeding  that   of  the   platform,  and   either  made 

*  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  from  which  Abraham  went  forth. 


THE  RUINS. 


47 


plain  at  the  top,  or  else  crowned   into  stone   battle- 
ments cut  into  <jradines."  * 

6.  Some  mounds  are  considerably  higher  than  the 
others  and  of  a  peculiar  shape,  almost  like  a  pyra- 
mid, that  is,  ending  in  a  point  from  which  it  slopes 


II. — MOUND   OF   MUGHEIR    (ANCIENT   UR). 

down  rapidly  on  all  sides.  Such  is  the  pyramidal 
mound  of  Nimrud,  which  Layard  describes  as  being 
so  striking  and  picturesque  an  object  as  you  ap- 
proach the  ruins  from  any  point  of  the  plain. f  Such 
also  is  the  still  more  picturesque  mound  of  BOR- 
SIPPA  (now  Birs-I-Nimrud)  near  Babylon,  the  larg- 

*  Rawlinson's  "  Five  Monarchies,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  349. 
t  Figure  15. 


48 


IXTRODUCrrON. 


est  of  this  kind.*  Tliesc  mounds  are  the  remains  of 
peculiar  constructions,  called  ZiGGURATS,  composed 
of  several  platforms  piled  one  on  the  other,  each 
square  in  shape  and  somewhat  smaller  than  the 
preceding  one  ;  the  topmost  platform  supported 
a  temple  or  sanctuary,  which  by  these  means  was 
raised  far  above  the  dwellings  of  men,  a  constant 
reminder  not  less  eloquent  than  the  exhortation  in 
some  of  our  religious  services :  "  Lift  up  your 
hearts  !  "  Of  these  heavenward  pointing  towers, 
which  were  also  used  as  observatories  by  the  Chal- 
deans, great  lovers  of  the  starry  heavens,  that  of 
Borsippa,  once  composed  of  seven  stages,  is  the 
loftiest:  it  measures  over  150  feet  in  perpendicular 
height. 

7.  It  is  evident  that  these  artificial  hills  could 
have  been  erected  only  at  an  incredible  cost  of  labor. 
The  careful  measurements  which  have  been  taken 
of  several  of  the  principal  mounds  have  enabled 
explorers  to  make  an  accurate  calculation  of  the 
exact  amount  of  labor  employed  on  each.  The 
result  is  startling,  even  though  one  is  prepared  for 
something  enormous.  The  great  mound  of  Koyun- 
jik — which  represents  the  palaces  of  Nineveh  itself — 
covers  an  area  of  one  hundred  acres,  and  reaches 
an  elevation  of  95  feet  at  its  highest  point.  To 
heap  up  such  a  pile  of  brick  and  earth  "  would  re- 
quire the  united  exertions  of  10,000  men  for  twelve 
years,  or  of  20,000  men  for  six  years."  f  Then  only 
could  the  construction  of  the  palaces  begin.     The 

*  Figure  16. 

t  Rawlinson's  "Five  Monarchies,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  317  and  318. 


THE  RUINS. 


49 


mound  of  Nebbi-Yunus,  which  has  not  yet  been 
excavated,  covers  an  area  of  forty  acres  and  is  loft- 
ier and  steeper  than  its  neighbor :  "  its  erection 
would  have  given  full  employment  to  10,000  men 
for  the  space  of  five  years  and  a  half."  Clearly, 
none  but  conquering  monarchs,  who  yearly  took 
thousands  of  prisoners  in  battles  and  drove  hom.e 
into   captivity   a  part   of  the   population    of    every 


iOfeet^. 


12. — ^TERRACE  WALL  AT   KHORSABAD. 

(Rawlinson's  "  Great  Monarchies.") 

country  they  subdued,  could  have  employed  such 
hosts  of  workmen  on  their  buildings— not  once,  but 
continually,  for  it  seems  to  have  been  a  point  of 
honor  with  the  Assyrian  kings  that  each  should 
build  a  new  palace  for  himself. 

8.  When  one  considers  the  character  of  the  land 
along  the  upper  course  of  the  Tigris,  where  the  As- 
syrians dwelt,  one  cannot  help  wondering  why  they 
went   on   building  mounds  and  using  nothing  but 


50 


IN  TR  O  D  UC  TION. 


bricks  in  their  constructions.  There  is  no  reason 
for  it  in  the  nature  of  the  country.  The  cities  of 
Assyria — NiNEVKH  (Koyunjik),  Kalah  (Nimrud), 
Arbela,  Dur-Sharrukin  (Khorsabad)  were  built 
in  the  midst  of  a  hilly  region  abounding  in  many 
varieties  of  stone,  from  soft  limestone  to  hard  ba- 
salt;  some  of  them  actually  stood  on  rocky  ground, 
their  moats  being  in  part  cut  through  the  rock. 
Had  they  wanted  stone  of  better  quality,  they  had 
only  to  get  it  from  the  Zagros  range  of  mountains, 
which  skirts  all  Assyria  to  the  East,  separating  it 
from  Media.  Yet  they  never  availed  themselves 
of  these  resources,  which  must  have  led  to  great 
improvements  in  their  architecture,  and  almost  en- 
tirely reserved  the  use  of  stone  for  ornamental  pur- 
poses. This  would  tend  to  show,  at  all  events,  that 
the  Assyrians  were  not  distinguished  for  inventive 
genius.  They  had  wandered  northward  from  the 
lowlands,  where  they  had  dwelt  for  centuries  as  a 
portion  of  the  Chaldean  nation.  When  they  sepa- 
rated from  it  and  went  off  to  found  cities  for  them- 
selves, they  took  with  them  certain  arts  and  tricks 
of  handicraft  learned  in  the  old  home,  and  never 
thought  of  making  any  change  in  them.  It  does 
not  even  seem  to  have  occurred  to  them  that  by 
selecting  a  natural  rocky  elevation  for  their  build- 
ings they  would  avoid  the  necessity  of  an  artificial 
platform  and  save  vast  amount  of  labor  and  time. 

9.  That  they  did  put  stone  to  one  practical  use — 
the  outward  casing  of  their  walls  and  platforms — we 
have  already  seen.  The  blocks  must  have  been  cut 
in  the  Zagros  mountains  and  brought  by  water — 


^nrr 


W^- 


m- 


ttffi 


&      e 


5  2  IN  TROD  UC  TION. 

rafted  down  the  Zab,  or  some  other  of  the  rivers 
which,  springing  from  those  mountains,  flow  into 
the  Tigris.  The  process  is  represented  with  perfect 
clearness  on  some  of  the  sculptures.  This  partic- 
ular illustration  is  of  great  interest,  as  showing  a 
peculiar  mode  of  transport, — rafts  floated  on  in- 
flated skins — which  is  at  the  present  moment  in  as 
general  and  constant  use  as  it  appears  to  have  been 
in  the  same  parts  three  thousand  years  ago  and 
probably  more.  When  Layard  wished  to  send  off 
the  bulls  and  lions  which  he  had  moved  from  Nim- 
rud  and  Koyunjik  down  the  Tigris  to  Baghdad  and 
Busrah,  (or  Bassorah),  there  to  be  embarked  for 
Europe,  he  had  recourse  to  this  conveyance,  as  no 
other  is  known  for  similar  purposes.  This  is  how 
he  describes  the  primitive,  but  ingenious  contriv- 
ance :  "  The  skins  of  full-grown  sheep  and  goats, 
taken  ofT  with  as  few  incisions  as  possible,  are  dried 
and  prepared,  one  aperture  being  left,  through 
which  the  air  is  forced  by  the  lungs.  A  framework 
of  poplar  beams,  branches  of  trees,  and  reeds,  hav- 
ing been  constructed  of  the  size  of  the  intended 
raft,  the  inflated  skins  are  tied  to  it  by  osier  twigs. 
The  raft  is  then  complete  and  is  moved  to  the  water 
and  launched.  Care  is  taken  to  place  the  skins  with 
their  mouths  upward,  that,  in  case  any  should  burst 
or  require  refilling,  they  can  be  easily  reached. 
Upon  the  framework  are  piled  bales  of  goods,  and 
property  belonging  to  merchants  and  travellers. 
.  .  .  .  The  raftmcn  impel  these  rude  vessels  by 
long  poles,  to  the  ends  of  which  are  fastened  a  few 
pieces    of    split    cane.  .  .  .    During    the     floods    in 


THE  RUINS. 


53 


sprint^,  or  after  heavy  rains,  small  rafts  may  float 
from  Mossul  to  Baghdad  in  about  eighty-four  hours  : 
but  the  larger  are  generally  six  or  seven  days  m 
performing  the  voyage.     In  summer,  and  when  the 


14. — MOUND   OF   NIMRUD. 
(Layard.) 


15.— BIRS-I-NIMRUD   (ANCIENT   BORSIPPA). 
(Smith's  "  Chaldea.") 

river  is  low,  they  are  frequently  nearly  a  month  in 
reaching  their  destination.  When  they  have  been 
unloadc^d,  they  are  broken  up,  and  the  beams,  wood 
and  twigs  sold  at  considerable  profit.  The  skms 
are  washed  and  afterward  rubbed  with  a  preparation. 


54 


introduction: 


to  keep  them  from  cracking  and  rotting.  They  are 
then  brought  back,  cither  on  the  shoulders  of  the 
raftmen  or  upon  donkeys,  to  Mossul  and  Tekrit, 
where  the  men  engaged  in  the  navigation  of 
the  Tigris  usually  reside."  Numerous  sculptures 
show  us  that  similar  skins  were  also  used  by  swim- 
mers, who  rode  upon  them  in  the  water,  probably 
when  they  intended  to  swim  a  greater  distance  than 
the)'  could  have  accomplished  by  their  unassisted 
efforts.     (See  figures  i8  and  19,  p.  59.) 

10.  Our  imagination  longs  to  reconstruct  those 
gigantic  piles  as  they  must  have  struck  the  beholder 
in  their  towering  hugeness,  approached  from  the 
plain  probably  by  several  stairways  and  by  at  least 
one  ascent  of  a  slope  gentle  enough  to  offer  a  con- 
venient access  to  horses  and  chariots.  What  an  im- 
posing object  must  have  been,  for  instance,  the 
palace  of  Sennacherib,  on  the  edge  of  its  battle- 
mented  platform  (mound  of  Koyunjik),  rising 
directly  above  the  waters  of  the  Tigris, — named  in 
the  ancient  language  "  the  Arrow  "  from  the  swift- 
ness of  its  current — into  the  golden  and  crimson  glory 
of  an  Eastern  sunset  !  Although  the  sameness  and 
unwieldy  nature  of  the  material  used  must  ha\c  put 
architectural  beauty  of  outline  out  of  the  question, 
the  general  effect  must  have  been  one  of  massive 
grandeur  and  majesty,  aided  as  it  was  by  the  elabo- 
rate ornamentation  lavished  on  every  portion  of  the 
building.  Unfortunately  the  work  of  reconstruc- 
tion is  left  almost  entirely  to  imagination,  \\hich 
derives  but  little  help  from  the  shapeless  heaps  into 


56 


IN  TROD  UC  TION. 


which   time    has    converted    those  ancient,  mighty 
halls. 

II.  Fergusson,  an  English  explorer  and  scholar 
whose  works  on  subjects  connected  with  art  and 
especially  architecture  hold  a  high  place,  has  at- 
tempted to  restore  the  palace  of  Sennacherib  such 
as  he  imagines  it  to  have  been,  from  the  hints  fur- 
nished by  the  excavations.  He  has  produced  a  strik- 
ing and  most  effective  picture,  of  which,  however, 
an  entire  half  is  simply  guesswork.*  The  whole 
nether  part — the  stone-cased,  battlementcd  platform 
wall,  the  broad  stairs,  the  esplanade  handsomely 
paved  with  patterned  slabs,  and  the  lower  part  of 
the  palace  with  its  casing  of  sculptured.slabs  and 
portals  guarded  by  winged  bulls — is  strictly  accord- 
ing to  the  positive  facts  supplied  by  the  excavations. 
For  the  rest,  there  is  no  authority  whatever.  We  do 
not  even  positively  know  whether  there  was  any  sec^ 
ond  story  to  Assyrian  palaces  at  all.  At  all  events, 
no  traces  of  inside  staircases  have  been  found,  and 
the  upper  part  of  the  walls  of  even  the  ground-floor 
has  regularly  been  either  demolished  or  destroyed 
by  fire.  As  to  columns,  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain 
how  far  they  may  have  been  used  and  in  what  way. 
Such  as  were  used  could  have  been,  as  a  rule,  only 
of  wood — trunks  of  great  trees  hewn  and  smoothed 
— and  consequently  every  vestige  of  them  has  dis- 
appeared, though  some  round  column  bases  in 
stone  have  been  found. f     The  same  remarks  apply 

*  See  Fig.  20,  p.  61.     See  Fig.  21,  p.  O3. 

f  There  is  but  one  exception,  in  the  case  of  a  recent  exploration, 
during  which  one  soUtary  broken  column-shaft  was  discovered. 


THE   RUINS. 


57 


to  the  restoration  of  an  Assyrian  palace  court,*  also 
after  Fergusson,  while  that  of  a  palace  hall,  after 
Layard  is  not  open  to  the  same  reproach  and  gives 
simply  the  result  of  actual  discoveries.f  Without, 
therefore,    stopping    long   to    consider    conjectures 


17. — MOUND   OF   NEBBI-YUNUS    (JONAH'S    MOUND). 

more  or  less  unsupported,  let  us  rather  try  to  repro- 
duce in  our  minds  a  clear  perception  of  what  the 
audience  hall  of  an  Assyrian  king  looked  like  from 
what  we  may  term  positive  knowledge.  We  shall 
find  that  our  materials  will  go  far  towards  creating 
for  us  a  vivid  and  authentic  picture. 

*  See  Fig.  22,  p.  65.     \  See  Fig.  23.  p.  67. 


58 


lA'TRODUCT/OA^. 


12.  On  entering  such  a  hall  the  first  thing  to 
strike  us  would  probably  be  the  pavement,  cither  of 
large  alabaster  slabs  delicately  carved  in  graceful  pat- 
terns, as  also  the  arched  doorways  leading  into  the 
adjacent  rooms,  or  else  covered  with  rows  of  inscrip- 
tions, the  characters  being  deeply  engraven  and 
afterwards  filled  with  a  molten  metallic  substance, 
like  brass  or  bronze,  which  would  give  the  entire  floor 
the  appearance  of  being  covered  with  inscriptions 
in  gilt  characters,  the  strange  forms  of  cuneiform 
writing  making  the  whole  look  like  an  intricate  and 
fanciful  design.     (Figs.  24  and  25,  pp.  69  and  71.) 

13.  Our  gaze  would  next  be  fascinated  by  the 
colossal  human-headed  winged  bulls  and  lions  keep- 
ing their  silent  watch  in  pairs  at  each  of  the  por- 
tals, and  we  should  notice  with  astonishment  that 
the  artists  had  allowed  them  each  an  extra  leg, 
making  the  entire  number  five  instead  of  four. 
This  was  not  done  at  random,  but  with  a  very  well- 
calculated  artistic  object — that  of  giving  the  mon- 
ster the  right  number  of  legs,  whether  the  spectator 
beheld  it  in  front  or  in  profile,  as  in  both  cases  one 
of  the  three  front  legs  is  concealed  by  the  others. 
The  front  view  shows  the  animal  standing,  while  it 
appears  to  be  striding  when  viewed  from  the  side. 
(See  figures  26  and  27,  pp.  73  and  75.)  The  walls  were 
worthy  of  these  majestic  door-keepers.  The  crude 
brick  masonry  disappeared  up  to  a  height  of  twelve 
to  fifteen  feet  from  the  ground  under  the  sculptured 
slabs  of  soft  grayish  alabaster  which  were  solidly 
applied  to  the  wall,  and  held  together  by  strong 
iron  cramps.     Sometimes  one  subject  or  one  gigan- 


l8. — WATER   TRANSPORT   OF   STONE. 


19. — SOLDIER    SWIMMING    RIVER 


60  INTRODCCTIOX. 

tic  figure  of  king  or  deity  was  represented  on  one 
slab  ;  often  the  same  subject  occupied  se\'eral  slabs, 
and  not  unfrequently  was  carried  on  along  an  en- 
tire wall.  In  this  case  the  lines  begun  on  one  slab 
were  continued  on  the  next  with  such  perfect 
smoothness,  so  absolutely  without  a  break,  as  to 
warrant  the  conclusion  that  the  slabs  were  sculpt- 
ured after  they  had  been  put  in  their  places,  not 
before.  Traces  of  paint  show  that  color  was  to  a 
certain  extent  employed  to  enliven  these  represen- 
tations, probably  not  over  plentifully  and  with  some 
discrimination.  Thus  color  is  found  in  many  places 
on  the  eyes,  brows,  hair,  sandals,  the  draperies,  the 
mitre  or  high  head-dress  of  the  kings,  on  the  har- 
ness of  horses  and  portions  of  the  chariots,  on  the 
flowers  carried  by  attendants,  and  sometimes  on 
trees.  Where  a  siege  is  portraj-ed,  the  flames  which 
issue  out  of  windows  and  roofs  seem  always  to 
have  been  painted  red.  There  is  reason  to  believe, 
however,  that  color  was  but  sparingly  bestowed  on 
the  sculptures,  and  therefore  they  must  have  pre- 
sented a  pleasing  contrast  with  the  richness  of  the 
ornamentation  which  ran  along  the  walls  immedi- 
ately above,  and  which  consisted  of  hard  baked 
bricks  of  large  size,  painted  and  glazed  in  the  fire, 
forming  a  continuous  frieze  from  three  to  five  feet 
wide.  Sometimes  the  painting  represented  human 
figures  and  various  scenes — as  in  the  specimen  given 
on  p.  yy,  a  rarely  preserved  fragment — in  which  case 
it  was  usually  confined  above  and  below  by  a  simple 
but  graceful  running  pattern,*  or  it  w^ould  consist 
wholly  of  a  more  or  less  elaborate  continuous  pat- 

*  See  Fig.  24,  p.  77,  Figs.  31  and  32,  p.  gi. 


1^- 


^ 


:.i.-l     ^ 

1  ,i 

■I- 

^ 

r-L{ 

m 

fs 

\ 

Hri 

4 

•■ 

-t. 

1         ^^^ 

\  '     . 

•^  \ 

S   J 


^^ 


\\% 


^1^    ,7__:l,.-^^^-     -.^P'^ij^,^}^ 


^2  '  IXTRODL'CTION. 

tern  like  Fig.  30  or  like  Fig.  33,  the  latter,  a  sym 
bolical  composition  with  a  religious  signification. 
(See  also  Fig.  23,  "  Interior  of  a  Palace.")  Curi 
ously  enough  the  remains — mostly  very  trifling  frag- 
ments— which  have  been  discovered  in  various  ruins, 
show  that  these  handsomely  finished  glazed  tiles  ex- 
hibited the  very  same  colors  which  are  nowadays 
in  such  high  favor  with  ourselves  for  all  sorts  of 
decorative  purposes :  those  used  most  frequently 
were  a  dark  and  a  pale  yellow,  white  and  cream- 
color,  a  delicate  pale  green,  occasionally  orange  and 
a  pale  lilac,  very  little  blue  and  red  ;  olive-green  and 
brown  are  favorite  colors  for  grounds.  "  Now  and 
then  an  intense  blue  and  a  bright  red  occur,  gener- 
ally together;  but  these  positive  hues  are  rare,  and 
the  taste  of  the  Assyrians  seems  to  have  led  them 
to  prefer,  for  their  patterned  walls,  pale  and  dull 
hues.  .  .  .  The  general  tone  of  their  coloring  is 
quiet,  not  to  say  sombre.  There  is  no  striving  after 
brilliant  effects.  The  Assyrian  artist  seeks  to 
please  by  the  elegance  of  his  forms  and  the  har- 
mony of  his  hues,  not  to  startle  by  a  display  of 
bright  and  strongly  contrasted  colors.* 

14.  It  has  been  asked :  how  were  those  halls 
roofed  and  how  were  they  lighted?  questions  which 
have  given  rise  to  much  discussion  and  which  can 
scarcely  ever  be  answered  in  a  positive  way,  since  in 
no  single  instance  has  the  upper  part  of  the  walls  or 
any  part  whatever  of  the  roofing  been  preserved. 
Still,  the  peculiar  shape  and  dimensions  of  the  princi- 


*  G.  Rawlinson's  "  Five  Monarchies,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  467,  468. 


THE  RUINS. 


63 


pal  palace  halls  goes  far  towards  establishing  a  sort 
of  circumstantial  evidence  in  the  case.  They  arc 
invariably  long  and  narrow,  the  proportions  in  some 
being  so  striking  as  to  have  made  them  more  like 
corridors  than  apartments — a  feature,  by  the  by, 
which  must  have  greatly  impaired  their  architectural 
beauty :  they  were  three  or  four  times  as  long  as 
they  were  wide,  and  even  more.     The  great  hall  of 


21. — CIRCULAR  PILLAR-BASE. 


the  palace  of  Asshur-nazir-pal  on  the  platform  of 
the  Nimrud  mound  (excavated  by  Layard,  who  calls 
it,  from  its  position,  "  the  North-West  palace  ")  is 
160  feet  long  by  not  quite  40  wide.  Of  the  five 
halls  in  the  Khorsabad  palace  the  largest  measures 
116  ft.  by  33,  the  smallest  87  by  25,  while  the  most 
imposing  in  size  of  all  yet  laid  open,  the  great  hall 
of  Sennacherib  at  Koyunjik,  shows  a  length  of  fully 
180  ft.  with  a  width  of  40.     It   is  scarcely  probable 


64 


IXTRODUCTIOX. 


that  the  old  builders,  who  in  other  points  have 
shown  so  much  artistic  taste,  should  have  selected 
this  uniform  and  unsatisfactory  shape  for  their  state 
apartments,  unless  they  were  forcibly  held  to  it  by 
some  insuperable  imperfection  in  the  means  at  their 
disposal.  That  they  knew  how  to  use  proportions 
more  pleasing  in  their  general  effect,  we  see  from 
the  inner  open  courts,  of  which  there  were  several 
in  every  palace,  and  which,  in  shape  and  dimensions 
are  very  much  like  those  in  our  own  castles  and  pal- 
aces,— nearly  square,  (about  i8o  ft.  or  120  ft.  each 
way)  or  slightly  oblong:  93  ft.  by  84,  124  ft.  by  90, 
150  ft.  by  125.  Only  two  courts  have  been  found 
to  lean  towards  the  long-and-narrow  shape,  one  be- 
ing 250  ft.  by  150,  and  the  other  220  by  lOO.  But 
even  this  is  very  different  from  those  passage- 
like galleries.  The  only  thing  which  entirely  ex- 
plains this  awkward  feature  of  all  the  royal  halls, 
is  the  difficulty  of  providing  them  with  a  roof.  It 
is  impossible  to  make  a  flat  roof  of  nothing  but 
bricks,  and  although  the  Assyrians  knew  how  to 
construct  arches,  they  used  them  only  for  very 
narrow  vaults  or  over  gate-ways  and  doors,  and 
could  not  have  carried  out  the  principle  on  any 
very  extensive  scale.  The  only  obvious  expedi- 
ent consisted  in  simply  spanning  the  width  of 
the  hall  with  wooden  beams  or  rafters.  Now  no 
tree,  not  even  the  lofty  cedar  of  Lebanon  or  the  tall 
cypress  of  the  East,  will  give  a  rafter,  of  equal 
thickness  from  end  to  end,  more  than  40  ft.  in. 
length,  few  even  that.  There  was  no  getting  over 
or  around  this  necessity,  and  so  the  matter  was  set- 


66  IXTRODUCTION. 

tied  for  the  artists  quite  aside  from  their  own 
wishes.  This  also  explains  the  great  v^alue  which 
was  attached  by  all  the  Assyrian  conquerors  to  fine 
timber.  It  was  often  demanded  as  tribute,  nothing 
could  be  more  acceptable  as  a  gift,  and  expeditions 
were  frequently  undertaken  into  the  distant  moun- 
tainous regions  of  the  Lebanon  on  pur])ose  to  cut 
some.  The  difficulty  about  roofing  would  naturally 
fall  away  in  the  smaller  rooms,  used  probably  as 
sleeping  and  dwelling  apartments,  and  accordingly 
they  vary  freely  from  oblong  to  square  ;  the  latter 
being  generally  about  25  ft.  each  way,  sometimes 
less,  but  never  more.  There  were  a  great  many 
such  chambers  in  a  palace  ;  as  many  as  sixty-eight 
have  been  discovered  in  Sennacherib's  palace  at 
Koyunjik,  and  a  large  portion  of  the  building,  be  it 
remembered,  is  not  yet  fully  explored.  Some  were 
as  highly  decorated  as  the  great  halls,  some  faced 
with  plain  slabs  or  plastered,  and  some  had  no  or- 
naments at  all  and  showed  the  crude  brick.  These 
differences  probably  indicate  the  difference  of  rank 
in  the  royal  household  of  the  persons  to  whom  the 
apartments  were  assigned. 

15.  The  question  of  light  has  been  discussed  by 
eminent  explorers — Layard,  Botta,  Fergusson — at 
even  greater  length  and  with  a  greater  display  of  in- 
genuity than  that  of  roofing.  The  results  of  the 
learned  discussion  maybe  shortly  summed  up  as  fol- 
lows :  We  may  take  it  for  granted  that  the  halls 
were  sufificiently  lighted,  for  the  builders  would  not 
have  bestowed  on  them  such  lavish  artistic  labor  had 
they  not  meant  their  work  to  be  seen  in  all  its  details 


58  INTRODUCTION. 

and  to  the  best  advantage.  This  could  be  effected 
only  in  one  of  three  ways,  or  in  two  combined : 
either  by  means  of  numerous  small  windows  pierced 
at  regular  intervals  above  the  frieze  of  enamelled 
bricks,  between  that  and  the  roof, — or  by  means  of 
one  large  opening  in  the  roof  of  woodwork,  as  shown 
in  Layard's  restoration  (Fig.  23),  or  by  smaller  open- 
ings placed  at  more  frequent  intervals.  This  latter 
contrivance  is  in  general  use  now  in  Armenian 
houses,  and  Botta,  who  calls  it  a  louvre,  gives  a 
drawing  of  it.*  It  is  very  ingenious,  and  would  have 
the  advantage  of  not  admitting  too  great  a  mass  of 
sunlight  and  heat,  and  of  being  easily  covered  with 
carpets  or  thick  felt  rugs  to  exclude  the  rain.  The 
second  method,  though  much  the  grandest  in  point 
of  effect,  would  present  none  of  these  advantages 
and  would  be  objectionable  chiefly  on  account  of 
the  rain,  which,  pouring  down  in  torrents — as  it 
does,  for  weeks  at  a  time,  in  those  countries — must 
very  soon  damage  the  flooring  where  it  is  of  brick, 
and  eventually  convert  it  into  mud,  not  to  speak  of 
the  inconvenience  of  making  the  state  apartments 
unfit  for  use  for  an  indefinite  period.  The  small  side 
windows  just  below  the  roof  would  scarcely  give  suf- 
ficent  light  by  themselves.  Who  knows  but  they  may 
have  been  combined  with  the  louvre  system,  and 
thus  something  very  satisfactory  finally  obtained. 

16.  The  kings  of  Chaldca,  Babylonia  and  Assyria 
seem  to  have  been  absolutely  possessed  with  a  ma- 
nia for  building.  Scarcely  one  of  them  but  left  in- 
scriptions telling  how  he  raised  this  or  that  palace, 

*See  Fig.  34,  p.  83. 


THE  RU/XS. 


69 


this  or  that  temple  in  one  or  other  city,  often  in 
many  cities.  Few  contented  themselves  with  re- 
pairing the  buildings  left  by  their  predecessors. 
This  is  easy  to  be  ascertained,  for  they  always  men: 
tion  all  they  did  in   that  line.     Vanity,  which  seems 


24. — PAVEMENT    SLAB. 

to  have  been,  together  with  the  love  of  booty,  almost 
their  ruling  passion,  of  course  accounts  for  this  in  a 
great  measure.  But  there  are  also  other  causes,  of 
which  the  principal  one  was  the  very  perishable  na- 
ture of  the  constructions,  all  their  heavy  massive- 
ness   notwithstanding.      Being    made    of   compara- 


70 


INTRODUCTION. 


tively  soft  and  yielding  material,  their  very  weight 
would  cause  the  mounds  to  settle  and  bulge  out  at 
the  sides  in  some  places,  producing  crevices  in 
others,  and  of  course  disturbing  the  balance  of  the 
thick  but  loose  masonry  of  the  walls  constructed  on 
top  of  them.  These  accidents  could  not  be  guarded 
against  by  the  outer  casing  of  stone  or  burnt  brick, 
or  even  by  the  strong  buttresses  which  were  used 
from  a  very  early  period  to  prop  up  the  unwieldy 
piles:  the  pressure  from  within  was  too  great  to  be 
resisted. 

17.  An  outer  agent,  too,  was  at  work,  surely  and 
steadily  destructive :  the  long,  heavy  winter  rains. 
Crude  brick,  when  exposed  to  moisture,  easily  dis- 
solves into  its  original  element — mud  ;  even  burned 
brick  is  not  proof  against  very  long  exposure  to 
violent  wettings ;  and  we  know  that  the  mounds 
were  half  composed  of  loose  rubbish.  Once 
thoroughly  permeated  with  moisture,  nothing  could 
keep  these  huge  masses  from  dissolution.  The 
builders  were  well  aware  of  the  danger  and  strug- 
gled against  it  to  the  best  of  their  ability  by  a 
very  artfully  contrived  and  admirably  executed  sys- 
tem of  drainage,  carried  through  the  mounds  in  all 
directions  and  pouring  the  accumulated  waters  into 
the  plain  out  of  mouths  beautifull}'  constructed  in 
the  shape  of  arched  vaults.*  Under  the  flooring  of 
most  of  the  halls  have  been  found  drains,  running 
along  the  centre,  then  bending  off  towards  a  conduit 
in  one  of  the  corners,  which  carried  the  contents 
down  into  one  of  the  principal  channels. 

*  Figures  35  and  36,  p.  85. 


THE   RUINS. 


7» 


1 8.  But  all  these  precautions  were,  in  the  long  run, 
of  little  avail,  so  that  it  was  frequently  a  simpler  and 
less  expensive  proceeding  for  a  king  to  build  a  new- 
palace,  than  to  keep  repairing  and  propping  up  an 
old  one  which  crumbled  to  pieces,  so  to  speak,  under 


25. — ORNAMENTAL   DOORWAY. 
(Rawlinson.) 

the  workmen's  hands.  It  is  not  astonishing  that 
sometimes,  when  they  had  to  give  up  an  old  man- 
sion as  hopeless,  they  proceeded  to  demolish  it,  in 
order  to  carry  away  the  stone  and  use  it  in  struct- 
ures of  their  own,  probably  not  so  much  as  a  matter 


72 


IiV  TROD  UC  TIOX. 


of  thrift,  as  with  a  view  to  quickening  the  work, 
stone-cutting  in  the  quarries  and  transport  down  the 
river  always  being  a  lengthy  operation.  This  ex- 
plains why,  in  some  later  palaces,  slabs  were  found 
with  their  sculptured  face  turned  to  the  crude  brick 
wall,  and  the  other  smoothed  and  prepared  for  the 
artist,  or  with  the  sculptures  half  erased,  or  piled 
up  against  the  wall,  ready  to  be  put  in  place.  The 
nature  of  the  injuries  which  caused  the  ancient 
buildings  to  decay  and  lose  all  shape,  is  very  faith- 
fully described  in  an  inscription  of  the  Babylonian 
king  Nebuchadnezzar,  in  which  he  relates  how  he 
constructed  the  Ziggurat  of  Borsippa  on  the  site  of 
an  ancient  construction,  which  he  repaired,  as  far  as 
it  went.  This  is  what  he  says  :  "  The  temple  of  the 
Seven  Spheres,  the  Tower  of  Borsippa  which  a  for- 
mer king  had  built  ....  but  had  not  finished  its 
upper  part,  from  remote  days  had  fallen  into  decay. 
The  channels  for  drawing  off  the  water  had  not  been 
properly  provided  ;  rain  and  tempest  had  washed 
away  its  bricks  ;  the  bricks  of  the  roof  were  cracked  ; 
the  bricks  of  the  building  were  washed  away  into 
heaps  of  rubbish."  All  this  sufificiently  accounts 
for  the  peculiar  aspect  offered  by  the  Mesopotamian 
ruins.  Whatever  process  of  destruction  the  build- 
ings underwent,  whether  natural  or  violent,  by  con- 
querors' hands,  whether  through  exposure  to  fire  or 
to  stress  of  weather,  the  upper  part  would  be  the 
first  to  suffer,  but  it  would  not  disappear,  from  the 
nature  of  the  material,  which  is  not  combustible. 
The  crude  bricks  all  through  the  enormous  thickness 
of  the  walls,  once  thoroughly  loosened,  dislodged. 


26 — LION    WITH    HUMAN    HEAD. 
(Perrot  and  Chippicz.j 


74 


INTRODUCTION. 


dried  up  or  soaked  through,  would  lose  their 
consistency  and  tumble  down  into  the  courts  and 
halls,  choking  them  up  with  the  soft  rubbish  into 
which  they  crumbled,  the  surplus  rolling  down  the 
sides  and  forming  those  even  slopes  which,  from  a 
distance,  so  deceivingly  imitate  natural  hills.  Time, 
accumulating  the  drift-sand  from  the  desert  and 
particles  of  fertile  earth,  does  the  rest,  and  clothes 
the  mounds  with  the  verdant  and  flowery  garment 
which  is  the  delight  of  the  Arab's  eyes. 

19.  It  is  to  this  mode  of  destruction  the  Assyrian 
kings  allude  in  their  annals  by  the  continually  recur- 
ring phrase  :  "  I  destroyed  their  cities,  I  overwhelmed 
them,  I  burned  them  in  the  fire,  /  made  heaps  of 
them."  However  diflficult  it  is  to  get  at  the  treasures 
imbedded  in  these  "heaps,"  wc  ought  not  to  repine 
at  the  labor,  since  they  owe  their  preservation  en- 
tirely to  the  soft  masses  of  earth,  sand  and  loose  rub- 
bish which  have  protected  them  on  all  sides  from  the 
contact  with  air,  rain  and  ignorant  plunderers,  keep- 
ing them  as  safely — if  not  as  transparently — housed 
as  a  walnut  in  its  lump  of  candied  sugar.  The  explor- 
ers know  this  so  well,  that  when  they  leave  the  ruins, 
after  completing  their  work  for  the  time,  they  make 
it  a  point  to  fill  all  the  excavated  spaces  with  the 
very  rubbish  that  has  been  taken  out  of  them  at  the 
cost  of  so  much-  labor  and  time.  There  is  some- 
thing impressive  and  reverent  in  thus  re-burying 
the  relics  of  those  dead  ages  and  nations,  whom  the 
mysterious  gloom  of  their  self-erected  tombs  be- 
comes better  than  the  glare  of  the  broad,  curious 
daylight.     When  Layard,  before  his  departure,  after 


THE  RUINS. 


75 


once  more  wandering  with  some  friends  through  all 
the  trenches,  tunnels  and  passages  of  the  Nimrud 
mound,  to  gaze  for  the  last  time  on  the  wonders  on 
which  no  man  had  looked  before  him,  found  himself 


27. — WINGED   BULL. 
(Perrot  and  Chippiez.) 

once  more  on  the  naked  platform  and  ordered  the 
workmen  to  cover  them  up  again,  he  was  strongly 
moved  by  the  contrast  :  "  We  look  around  in  vain," 
says  he,  "  for  any  traces  of  the  wonderful  remains 
we  have  just  seen,  and  are  half  inclined  to  believe 
that  we  have  dreamed  a  dream,  or  have  been  listen- 


-jd  INTRODUCTION. 

ing  to  some  tale  of  Eastern  romance.  Some,  who 
may  hereafter  tread  on  the  spot  when  the  grass 
again  grows  over  the  Assyrian  palaces,  may  indeed 
suspect  that  I  have  been  relating  a  vision." 

20.    It  is  a  curious  fact  that  in  Assyria  the  ruins 
speak  to  us  only  of  the  living,  and  that  of  the  dead 
there  are  no  traces  whatever.     One  might  think  peo- 
ple never  died  there  at  all.     Yet  it  is  well  known 
that  all  nations  have  bestowed  as  much  care  on  the 
interment  of  their  dead  and  the  adornment  of  their 
last  resting-place  as    on   the   construction   of  their 
dwellings — nay,  some  even   more,  for  instance,  the 
Egyptians.     To  this  loving  veneration  for  the  dead 
history  owes  half  its  discoveries ;  indeed  we  should 
have  almost   no  reliable  information  at  all  on   the 
very  oldest  races,  who  lived  before  the  invention  of 
writing,  were  it  not  for  their  tombs  and  the  things 
we  find  in  them.      It  is  very  strange,  therefore,  that 
nothing  of  the  kind  should   be  found   in  Assyria,  a 
country  which  stood  so  high   in    culture.     For  the 
sepulchres  which  are  found  in  such  numbers  in  some 
mounds    down    to    a    certain    depth,    belong,   as   is 
shown  by  their  very  position,  to  later  races,  mostly 
even  to  the  modern  Turks  and  Arabs.     This  pecu- 
liarity is  so  puzzling  that  scholars  almost  incline  to 
suppose  that  the  Assyrians  either  made  away  with 
their  dead  in  some  manner  unknown  to  us.  or  else 
took  them  somewhere  to  bury.     The  latter  conjec- 
ture, though  not  entirely  devoid  of  foundation,  as 
we  shall  see,  is  unsupported   by  any  positive  facts, 
and  therefore  was  never  seriously  discussed.     The 


28. — COLORED   AND   GLAZED  FRIEZE-TILE,  REPRESENTING    KING  AND 

ATTENDANTS. 

(Rawlinsou.) 


:;9. — ASSYRIAN    PATTERN. 
(Rawlinson.) 


78 


INTRODUCTION. 


question  is  simply  left  open,  until   something  hap 
pens  to  shed  light  on  it. 

21.  It  is  just  the  contrary  in  Babylonia.  It  can 
boast  few  handsome  ruins  or  sculptures.  The  plat- 
forms and  main  walls  of  many  palaces  and  tem- 
ples have  been  known  from  the  names  stamped  on 
the  bricks  and  the  cylinders  found  in  the  founda- 
tions, but  they  present  only  shapeless  masses,  from 
which  all  traces  of  artistic  work  have  disappeared. 
In  compensation,  there  is  no  country  in  the  world 
where  so  many  and  such  vast  cemeteries  have  been 
discovered.  It  appears  that  the  land  of  Chaldea, 
— perhaps  because  it  was  the  cradle  of  nations  which 
afterwards  grew  to  greatness,  as  the  Assyrians  and 
the  Hebrews — was  regarded  as  a  place  of  peculiar 
holiness  by  its  own  inhabitants,  and  probably  also 
by  neighboring  countries,  which  would  explain  the 
mania  that  seems  to  have  prevailed  through  so 
many  ages,  for  burying  the  dead  there  in  unheard 
of  numbers.  Strangely  enough,  some  portions  of  it 
even  now  are  held  sacred  in  the  same  sense.  There 
are  shrines  in  Kerbela  and  Nedjif  (somewhat  to  the 
west  of  Babylon)  where  every  caravan  of  pilgrims 
brings  from  Persia  hundreds  of  dead  bodies  in  their 
felt-covered  cofifins,  for  burial.  They  are  brought 
on  camels  and  horses.  On  each  side  of  the  animal 
swings  a  cof^n,  unceremoniously  thumped  by  the 
rider's  bare  heels.  These  cofflns  are,  like  merchan- 
dise, unladen  for  the  night — and  sometimes  for  days 
too — in  the  khans  or  caravanseries  (the  enclosed 
halting-places),  where  men  and  beasts  take  their 
rest  together.     Under  that  tropical  clime,  it  is  easy 


THE  RUIiVS.  7g 

to  imagine  the  results.  It  is  in  part  to  this  disgust- 
ing custom  that  the  great  mortality  in  the  caravans 
is  to  be  attributed,  one  fifth  of  which  leave  their 
bones  in  the  desert  in  Jicalthy  seasons.  However 
that  may  be,  the  gigantic  proportions  of  the 
Chaldean  burying-grounds  struck  even  the  ancient 


l<Za<I<3:<I<i<I<I<I<I<2<2<2<I<I<I<2<I<I 


I<I<I<I<I<I<I€<I<I<I<2<I<I<I< 


30. — ASSYRIAN    PATTERN. 
(Ravvlinson.) 

Greek  travellers  with  astonishment,  and  some  of 
them  positively  asserted  that  the  Assyrian  kings 
used  to  be  buried  in  Chaldea.  If  the  kings,  why 
not  the  nobler  and  wealthier  of  their  subjects?  The 
transport  down  the  rivers  presented  no  difficulties. 
Still,  as  already  remarked,  all  this  is  mere  conjec- 
ture. , 
22.  Among    the    Chaldeans    cities    Erech    (now 


8o  A'V  TROD  UC  TlOr^. 

Warka)  was  considered  from  very  old  times  one  of 
the  holiest.  It  had  many  extremely  ancient  temples 
and  a  college  of  learned  priests,  and  around  it  grad- 
ually formed  an  immense  "  city  of  the  dead  "  or  Ne- 
cropolis. The  English  explorer,  Loftus,  in  1854-5, 
specially  turned  his  attention  to  it  and  his  account 
is  astounding.  First  of  all,  he  was  struck  by  the  ma- 
jestic desolation  of  the  place.  Warka  and  a  few  other 
mounds  are  raised  on  a  slightly  elevated  tract  of  the 
desert,  above  the  level  of  the  yearly  inundations,  and 
accessible  only  from  November  to  March,  as  all  the 
rest  of  the  time  the  surrounding  plain  is  either  a 
lake  or  a  swamp.  "  The  desolation  and  solitude  of 
Warka,"  says  Loftus,  "  are  even  more  striking  than 
the  scene  which  is  presented  at  Babylon  itself. 
There  is  no  life  for  miles  around.  No  river  glides 
in  grandeur  at  the  base  of  its  mounds  ;  no  green 
date  groves  flourish  near  its  ruins.  The  jackal  and 
the  hyaena  appear  to  shun  the  dull  aspect  of  its 
tombs.  The  king  of  birds  never  hovers  over  the 
deserted  waste.  A  blade  of  grass  or  an  insect  finds 
no  existence  there.  The  shrivelled  lichen  alone, 
clinging  to  the  weathered  surface  of  the  broken 
brick,  seems  to  glory  in  its  universal  dominion  over 
those  barren  walls.  Of  all  the  desolate  pictures  I 
have  ever  seen  that  of  Warka  incomparably  sur- 
passes all."  Surely  in  this  case  it  cannot  be  said 
that  appearances  are  deceitful ;  for  all  that  space, 
and  much  more,  is  a  cemetery,  and  what  a  cemetery  ! 
"  It  is  difficult,"  again  says  Loftus,  "to  convey  any- 
thing like  a  correct  idea  of  the  piles  upon  piles  of 
human    remains    which    there    utterly  astound    the 


31. — ASSYRIAN   PATTERN. 


32. — ASSYRIAN    PATTERN. 


33.— ASSYRIAN    PATTERN. 
(Rawlinson.) 


32  INTKODUCTIOX. 

beholder.  Excepting  only  the  triangular  space  be- 
tween the  three  principal  ruins,  the  whole  remain- 
der of  the  platform,  the  whole  space  between  the 
walls  and  an  unknown  extent  of  desert  beyond 
them,  are  everywhere  filled  with  the  bones  and 
sepulchres  of  the  dead.  There  is  probably  no  other 
site  in  the  world  which  can  compare  with  Warka  in 
this  respect."  It  must  be  added  that  the  cofiFins  do 
not  simply  lie  one  next  to  the  other,  but  in  layers, 
down  to  a  depth  of  30-60  feet.  Different  epochs 
show  different  modes  of  burial,  among  which  the 
following  four  are  the  most  remarkable. 

23.  Perhaps  the  queerest  coffin  shape  of  all  is  that 
composed  of  two  earthen  jars  {a  and  U),  which  accu- 
rately fit  together,  or  one  slightly  fits  into  the  other, 
the  juncture  being  made  air-tight  by  a  coating  of 
bitumen  {d,d).  The  body  can  be  placed  in  such  a 
coffin  only  with  slightly  bent  knees.  At  one  end  {c) 
there  is  an  air-hole,  left  for  the  escape  of  the  gases 
which  form  during  the  decomposition  of  the  body 
and  which  might  otherwise  burst  the  jars — a  precau- 
tion probably  suggested  by  experience  (fig.  37). 
Sometimes  there  is  only  one  jar  of  much  larger  size, 
but  of  the  same  shape,  with  a  similar  cover,  also 
made  fast  with  bitumen,  or  else  the  mouth  is  closed 
with  bricks.  This  is  an  essentially  national  mode  of 
burial,  perhaps  the  most  ancient  of  all,  yet  it  re- 
mained in  use  to  a  very  late  period.  It  is  to  be 
noted  that  this  is  the  exact  shape  of  the  water  jars 
now  carried  about  the  streets  of  Baghdad  and  fa- 
miliar to  every  traveller. 
•  24.  Not  much  less  original  is  the  so-called  "  dish- 


TIIF':   KUINS. 


83 


cover  coffin,"  also  very  ancient  and  national.-^'  The 
illustrations  sufficiently  show  its  shape  and  arrange- 
ment. In  these  coffins  two  skeletons  are  sometimes 
found,  showing  that  when  a  widow  or  widower  died, 
it  was  opened,  to  lay  the  newly  dead  by  the  side*  of 

The  cover  is  all  of 

fill 


the  one  who  had  gone  before 


34. — ARMENIAN   LOUVRE. 
(Rawlinson.) 

one  piece — a  very  respectable  achievement  of  the 
potter's  art.  In  Mugheir  (ancient  Ur),  a  mound 
was  found,  entirely  filled  with  this  kind  of  coffins.* 

25.  Much  more  elaborate,  and  consequently  prob- 
ably reserved  for  the  noble  and  wealthy,  is  the  sepul- 
chral vault  in  brick,  of  nearly  a  man's  height. f  In 
these  sepulchres,  as  in  the  preceding  ones,  the  skele- 


*  Figs.  38  and  39,  p. 


t  Fig.  40.  p.  91. 


THE  RUINS. 


85 


ton  is  always  found  l)'in<^  in  the  same  position,  evi- 
dently dictated  by  some  religious  ideas.  The  head 
is  pillowed  on  a  large  brick,  commonly  covered  with 
a  piece  of  stuff  or  a  rug.  In  the  tattered  rags  which 
sometimes  still  exist,  costly  embroideries  and  fringed 
golden  tissue  have  more  than  once  been  recognized, 
while  some  female  skeletons  still  showed  handsome 
heads  of  hair  gathered  into  fine  nets.  The  body 
lies  on  a  reed  mat,  on  its  left  side,  the  right  hand 
stretched  out  so  as  to  reach  with  the  tips  of  the  fin- 
gers a  bowl,  generally  of  copper  or  bronze,  and  some- 
times of  fine  workmanship,  usually   placed  on  the 


37. — CHALDEAN   JAR-COFFIN. 
(Rawlinson.) 

palm  of  the  left  hand.  Around  are  placed  various 
articles — dishes,  in  some  of  which  remnants  of  food 
are  found,  such  as  date  stones, — jars  for  water, 
lamps,  etc.  Some  skeletons  wear  gold  and  silver 
bangles  on  their  wrists  and  ankles.  These  vaults 
were  evidently  family  sepulchres,  for  several  skele- 
tons are  generally  found  in  them  ;  in  one  there  were 
no  less  than  eleven.     (Fig.  40,  p.  89.) 

26.  All  these  modes  of  burial  are  very  old  and  pe- 
culiarly Chaldean.  But  there  is  still  another,  which 
belongs  to  more  recent  times,  even  as  late  as  the 
first  centuries  after  Christ,  and  was  used  by  a  differ- 


S6  INTRO D  UC  TION. 

ent  and  foreign  race,  the  Parthians,  one  of  those 
who  came  in  turns  and  conquered  the  country, 
stayed  there  awhile,  then  disappeared.  These  cof- 
fins are,  from  their  curious  form,  known  under  the 
name  of  "  slipper-shaped."  They  are  glazed,  green 
on  the  outside  and  blue  on  the  inside,  but  of  very 
inferior  make :  poor  clay,  mixed  with  straw,  and 
only  half  baked,  therefore  very  brittle.  It  is 
thought  that  they  were  put  in  their  place  empt)', 
then  the  body  was  laid  in,  the  lid  put  down,  and 
the  care  of  covering  them  with  sand  left  to  the 
winds.  The  lid  is  fastened  with  the  same  mortar 
which  is  used  in  the  brick  masonry  surrounding  the 
coffin,  where  such  a  receptacle  has  been  made  for  it; 
but  they  more  usually  lie  pell-mell,  separated  only 
by  thin  layers  of  loose  sand.  There  are  mounds 
which  are,  as  one  may  say,  larded  with  them :  wher- 
ever you  begin  to  dig  a  trench,  the  narrow  ends 
stick  out  from  both  sides.  In  these  coffins  also 
various  articles  were  buried  with  the  dead,  some- 
times valuable  ones.  The  Arabs  know  this  ;  they 
dig  in  the  sand  with  their  hands,  break  the  coffins 
open  with  their  spears,  and  grope  in  them  for  booty. 
The  consequence  is  that  it  is  extremely  difficult  to 
procure  an  entire  coffin.  Loftus  succeeded,  how- 
ever, in  sending  some  to  the  British  Museum,  having 
first  pasted  around  them  several  layers  of  thick 
paper,  without  which  precaution  they  could  not 
have  borne  the  transport. 

2'j.  On  the  whole,  the  ancient  .Chaldean  sepul- 
tures of  the  three  first  kinds  are  distinguished  by 
greater  care  and  tidiness.     They  are  not  only  sepa- 


^S.—"  DISH-COVER  "   COFFIN. 


39- 


—INTERIOR    "dish-cover"    COFFIN 
(Rawlinson.) 


88  INTRODUCTION. 

rated  by  brick  partitions  on  the  sides,  and  also  above 
and  below  by  a  thin  layer  of  brick  masonry,  but  the 
greatest  care  was  taken  to  protect  them  against 
dampness.  The  sepulchral  mounds  are  pierced 
through  and  through,  from  top  to  bottom,  by  drain- 
age pipes  or  shafts,  consisting  of  a  series  of  rings, 
solidly  joined  together  with  bitumen,  about  one 
foot  in  diameter.  These  rings  are  made  of  baked 
clay.  The  top  one  is  shaped  somewhat  like  a  fun- 
nel, of  which  the  end  is  inserted  in  perforated 
bricks,  and  which  is  provided  with  small  holes,  to 
receive  any  infiltration  of  moisture.  Besides  all  this 
the  shafts,  which  are  sunk  in  pairs,  are  surrounded 
with  broken  pottery.  How  ingenious  and  practical 
this  system  was,  we  see  from  the  fact  that  both  the 
cofifins  and  their  contents  are  found  in  a  state  of 
perfect  dryness  and  preservation.     (Fig,  42,  p.  90.) 

28.  In  fact  the  Chaldeans,  if  they  could  not  reach 
such  perfection  as  the  Assyrians  in  slab-sculpture, 
on  account  of  not  having  stone  either  at  home  or 
within  easy  reach,  seem  to  have  derived  a  greater 
variety  of  architectural  ornaments  from  that  inex- 
haustible material  of  theirs — baked  clay  or  terra- 
cotta. We  see  an  instance  of  it  in  remnants — un- 
fortunately very  small  ones,  of  some  walls  belong- 
ing to  that  same  city  of  Erech.  On  one  of  the 
mounds  Loftus  was  puzzled  by  the  large  quantity 
of  small  terra-cotta  cones,  whole  and  in  fragments, 
lying  about  on  the  ground.  The  thick  flat  end  of 
them  was  painted  red,  black  or  white.  What  was 
his  amazement  when  he  stumbled  on  a  piece  of  wall 
(some  seven  feet  in  height  and  not  more  than  thirty 


40.— SEPULCHRAL  VAULT  AT   MUGHEIR. 
(Rawlinson-) 


41.— LAMPS   FOUND    IN    CHALDEAN    TOMBS. 
CRawlinson.) 


90 


IXTRODUCTION'. 


in  length),  which  showed  him  what  their  use  had 
been.  They  were  grouped  into  a  variety  of  pat- 
terns to  decorate  the  entire  wall,  being  stuck  with 
their  thin  end  into  a  layer  of  soft  clay  with  which  it 
was  coated  for  the  purpose.  Still  more  original  and 
even  rather  incomprehensible  is  a  wall  decoration 
consisting  of  several  bands,  composed  each  of  three 
rows  of  small  pots  or  cups — about  four  inches  in 
diameter — stuck  into  the  soft  clay  coating  in  the 
same   manner,  with  the  mouth  turned  outward  of 


42. — SECTION   OF  DRAIN. 
(Rawlinson.) 

course  !     Loftus  found  such  a  wall,  but  unfortunately 
has  given  no  design  of  it.     (Figures  43  and  44.) 

29.  As  to  the  ancient  Babylonian,  or  rather  Chal- 
dean, art  in  sculpture,  the  last  word  has  by  no 
means  been  said  on  that  subject.  Discoveries  crowd 
in  every  year,  constantly  leading  to  the  most  unex- 
pected conclusions.  Thus,  it  was  long  an  accepted 
fact  that  Assyria  had  very  few  statues  and  Baby- 
lonia   none   at   all,    when    a   few  years  ago    (1881), 


43. — WAI.I,  ^VITII  DE- 
SIGNS IN  TERR\-COT- 
TA  CONES,  A'J-  WARKA 
(ERECH). 


44. — TERRA-COTTA   CONE, 

NATURAL   SIZE. 

(Ravvlinson.) 


92 


INTRODUCTION. 


what  should  a  French  explorer,  Mr.  E.  de  Sarzec, 
French  consul  in  Basra,  brinc^  home  but  nine  mag- 
nificent statues  made  of  a  dark,  nearly  black  stone 
as  hard  as  granite  called  diorite.  Unfortunately 
they  are  all  headless  ;  but,  as  though  to  make  up 
for  this  mutilation,  one  head  was  found  separate, — 
a  shaved  and  turbaned  head  beautifully  preserved 
and  of  remarkable  workmanship,  the  very  pattern 
of  the  turban  being  plain  enough  to  be  reproduced 
by  any  modern  loom.  These  large  prizes  were  ac- 
companied by  a  quantity  of  small  works  of  art  rep- 
resenting both  men  and  animals,  of  a  highly  artistic 
design  and  some  of  them  of  exquisite  finish  of 
execution.  This  astounding  find,  the  result  of  sev- 
eral years*  indefatigable  work,  now  gracing  the  As- 
syrian rooms  of  the  Louvre  in  Paris,  comes  from  one 
of  the  Babylonian  mounds  which  had  not  been 
opened  before,  the  ruins  of  a  mighty  temple  at  a 
place  now  called  Tei.L-Loh,  and  supposed  to  be  the 
site  of  SiR-BURLA,  or  SiRTlLLA,  one  of  the  most  an- 
cient cities  of  Chaldea.  This  "  Sarzcc-collection,"  as 
it  has  come  to  be  generally  called,  not  only  entirely 
upsets  the  ideas  which  had  been  formed  on  Old- 
Chaldean  art,  but  is  of  immense  historical  import- 
ance from  the  inscriptions  which  cover  the  back  of 
every  statue,  (not  to  speak  of  the  cylinders  and 
other  small  objects,)  and  which,  in  connection  with 
the  monuments  of  other  ruins,  enable  scholars  to 
fix,  at  least  approximately,  the  date  at  which  flour- 
ished the  city  and  rulers  who  have  left  such  extra- 
ordinary memorials  of  their  artistic  gifts.  Some 
place  them  at  about  4500  B.C.,  others  about  4000. 


THE  RUINS.  93 

However  overwhelming  such  a  valuation  may  be  ai 
first  sight,  it  is  not  an  unsupported  fancy,  but  proofs 
concur  from  many  sides  to  show  that  the  builders 
and  sculptors  of  Sir-burla  could  in  no  case  have  lived 
and  worked  much  later  than  4000  B.C.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  indicate  in  a  few  lines  all  the  points,  the 
conjectures,  the  vexed  questions,  on  which  this 
discovery  sheds  light  more  or  less  directly,  more  or 
less  decisively;  they  come  up  continually  as  the 
study  of  those  remote  ages  proceeds,  and  it' will  be 
years  before  the  materials  supplied  by  the  Sarzec- 
Collection  are  exhausted  in  all  their  bearings 


IV. 


THE    BOOK   OF  THE   PAST. — THE   LIBRARY   OF 
NINEVEH. 


I.  When  we  wish  to  learn  the  great  deeds  of  past 
ages,  and  of  mighty  men  long  dead,  we  open  a  book 
and  read.  When  we  wish  to  leave  to  the  genera- 
tions who  will  come  long  after  us  a  record  of  the 
things  that  were  done  by  ourselves  or  in  our  own 
times,  we  take  pen,  ink  and  paper,  and  write  a  book. 
What  we  have  written  is  then  printed,  published  in 
several  hundreds — or  thousands — of  copies,  as  the 
case  may  be,  and  quickly  finds  its  way  to  all  the 
countries  of  the  world  inhabited  by  people  who  are 
trained  from  childhood  to  thought  and  study.  So 
that  we  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  the  in- 
formation which  we  have  labored  to  preserve  will  be 
obtainable  any  number  of  years  or  centurjes  after 
we  shall  have  ceased  to  exist,  at  no  greater  trouble 
than  procuring  the  book  from  the  shelves  of  a  book- 
store, a  public  or  a  private  librar}\  It  is  all  very 
simple.  And  there  is  not  a  small  child  who  does 
not  perfectly  know  a  book  by  its  looks,  and  even 
has  not  a  pretty  correct  idea  of  how  a  book  is  made 
and  what  it  is  good  for. 

94 


THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PAST.  ge 

2.  But  books  arc  not  always  of  the  shape  and  ma- 
terial so  familiar  to  us.  Metal,  stone,  brick,  walls 
and  pillars,  nay,  the  very  rocks  of  nature's  own  mak- 
ing, can  be  books,  conveying  information  as  plainly 
as  our  volumes  of  paper  sheets  covered  with  written 
or  printed  lines.  It  only  needs  to  know  how  to  read 
them,  and  the  necessary  knowledge  and  skill  may 
be  acquired  by  processes  as  simple  as  the  art  of  or- 
dinary reading  and  writing,  though  at  the  cost  of  a 
somewhat  greater  amount  of  time  and  pains, 

3.  There  are  two  natural  cravings,  which  assert 
themselves  strongly  in  every  mind  not  entirely  ab- 
sorbed by  the  daily  work  for  bread  and  by  the  anx- 
ious care  how  to  procure  that  work:  these  are  the 
wish,  on  the  one  hand,  to  learn  how  the  people  who 
came  before  us  lived  and  what  they  did,  on  the 
other — to  transmit  our  own  names  and  the  memory 
of  our  deeds  to  those  who  will  come  after  us.  We 
are  not  content  with  our  present  life  ;  we  want  to 
stretch  it  both  backward  and  forward — to  live  both 
in  the  past  and  the  future,  as  it  were.  This  curios- 
ity and  this  ambition  are  but  parts  of  the  longing 
for  im.mortality  which  was  never  absent  from  any 
human  soul.  In  our  own  age  they  are  satisfied 
mainly  by  books;  indeed  they  were  originally  the 
principal  causes  why  books  began  to  be  made  at  all. 
And  how  easy  to  satisfy  these  cravings  in  our  time, 
when  writing  materials  have  become  as  common  as 
food  and  far  cheaper,  and  reading  may  be  had  for 
nothing  or  next  to  nothing !  For,  a  very  few  dol- 
lars will  supply  a  writer  with  as  much  paper  as  he 
can  possibly  use  up  in  a  year,  while  the  public  libra- 


96 


INTR  OD  UC  TION. 


ries,  the  circulating  and  college  libraries  and  the 
reading-rooms  make  study  a  matter  more  of  love 
and  perseverance  than  of  money. 

4.  Yet  if  the  papermill  and  the  printing  press 
were  the  only  material  aid  to  our  researches  into  the 
past,  these  researches  would  stop  short  very  soon, 
seeing  that  printing  was  invented  in  Europe  scarce 
four  hundred  years  ago,  and  paper  has  not  been 
manufactured  for  more  than  six  hundred  years  at  the 
outside.  True,  other  materials  have  been  used  to 
write  on  before  paper:  bark  of  trees,  skins  of  ani- 
mals— (parchment) — cunningly  worked  fibres  of 
plants — (papyrus,  byblos) — even  wooden  tablets 
covered  with  a  thin  layer  of  wax,  on  which  charac- 
ters were  engraved  with  a  pointed  instrument  or 
"  style," — and  these  contrivances  have  preserved  for 
us  records  which  reach  back  many  hundreds  of  years 
beyond  the  introduction  of  paper.  But  our  curiosity, 
when  once  aroused,  is  insatiable,  and  an  area  of 
some  twenty,  or  thirty,  or  forty  centuries  seems  to 
it  but  a  narrow  field.  Looking  back  as  far  as  that — 
and  no  kind  of  manuscript  information  takes  us  much 
further — we  behold  the  world  wondrously  like  what 
it  is  now.  With  some  differences  in  garb,  in  man- 
ners, and  a  much  greater  one  in  the  range  of  knowl- 
edge, we  find  men  living  very  nearly  as  we  do  and 
enacting  very  nearly  the  same  scenes :  nations  live 
in  families  clustered  within  cities,  are  governed  by 
laws,  or  ruled  by  monarchs,  carry  on  commerce  and 
wars,  extend  their  limits  by  conquest,  excel  in  all 
sorts  of  useful  and  ornamental  arts.  Only  we  notice 
that  larger  regions  are  unknown,  vaster  portions  of 


THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PAST. 


97 


the  earth,  with  their  populations,  are  unexplored, 
than  in  our  days.  The  conclusion  is  clearly  forced 
on  us,  that  so  complicated  and  perfect  an  organiza- 
tion of  public  and  private  life,  a  condition  of  society 
implying  so  many  discoveries  and  so  long  a  practice 
in  thought  and  handicraft,  could  not  have  been  an 
early  stage  of  existence.  Long  vistas  are  dimly 
visible  into  a  past  far  vaster  than  the  span  as  yet 
laid  open  to  our  view,  and  we  long  to  pierce  the 
tantalizing  gloom.  There,  in  that  gloom,  lurk  the 
beginnings  of  the  races  whose  high  achievements 
we  admire,  emulate,  and  in  many  ways  surpass; 
there,  if  we  could  but  send  a  ray  of  light  into  the 
darkness  of  ages,  we  must  find  the  solution  of  num- 
berless questions  which  suggest  themselves  as  we 
go :  Whence  come  those  races  ?  What  was  the 
earlier  history  of  other  races  with  which  we  find 
them  contending,  treating,  trading?  When  did 
they  learn  their  arts,  their  songs,  their  forms  of  wor- 
ship? But  here  our  faithful  guide,  manuscript  lit- 
erature, forsakes  us ;  we  enter  on  a  period  when 
none  of  the  ancient  substitutes  for  paper  were  yet 
invented.  But  then,  there  were  the  stones.  Thej 
did  not  need  to  be  invented — only  hewn  and 
smoothed  for  the  chisel. 

5.  Fortunately  for  us,  men,  twenty-five,  and  forty, 
and  fifty  centuries  ago,  were  actuated  by  the  same 
feelings,  the  same  aspirations  as  they  are  now,  and 
of  these  aspirations,  the  passionate  wish  of  perpetu- 
ating their  names  and  the  memory  of  their  deeds 
has  always  been  one  of  the  most  powerful.  This 
wish  they  connected  with  and  made  subservient  to 


98 


JXTKODUCT/OX. 


the  two  things  which  were  great  and  holy  in  theii 
eyes:  their  reHgion  and  the  power  of  their  kings. 
So  they  built,  in  brick  and  stone,  at  an  almost  incal- 
culable expense  of  time,  human  labor  and  human 
life,  palaces  and  temples.     On  these  huge  piles  they 
lavished  treasures  untold,  as  also  all  the  resources 
of  their,  invention   and  their  skill  in  art  and  orna- 
ment ;    they  looked  on  them  with  exulting   pride, 
not  only  because  they  thought  them,  by  their  vast- 
ness  and  gorgeousness,  fit  places  for  public  worship 
and  dwellings  worthy  of  their  kings,  but  because 
these   constructions,    in    their    towering    grandeur, 
their  massive  solidity,  bid  fair  to  defy  time  and  out- 
last the  nations  which  raised  them,  and  which  thus 
felt  assured  of  leaving  behind  them  traces  of  their 
existence,    memorials    of   their   greatness.     That   a 
few    defaced,    dismantled,    moss-grown     or    sand- 
choked  fragments  of  these  mighty  buildings  would 
one  day  be  the  only  trace,  the  sole  memorial  of  a 
rule  and  of  nations  that  would  then  have  past  away 
forever,  even  into  nothingness  and  oblivion,  scarcely 
was    anticipated    by   the    haughty   conquerors   who 
filled  those  halls  with  their  despotic  presence,  and 
entered  those  consecrated  gates  in  the  pomp  of  tri- 
umph   to    render   thanks   for    bloody  victories    and 
warlike   exploits  which   elated  their  souls  in   pride 
till    they    felt     themselves    half    divine.       Nothing 
doubting  but  that  those  Avails,  those  pillars,  those 
gateways  would  stand  down  to  the  latest  ages,  they 
confided  to  them  that  which  was  most  precious  to 
their  ambition,  the  record  of  their  deeds,  the  praises 
of  their  names,  thus  using  those  stony  surfaces  as 


THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PAST.  99 

SO  many  blank  pages,  ^vhich  they  covered  with  row 
-xfter  row  of  wondrous  characters,  carefully  engraved 
or  chiselled,  and  even  with  painted  or  sculptured 
representations  of  their  own  persons  and  of  the 
scenes,  in  war  or  peace,  in  which  they  had  been 
leaders  and  actors. 

6    Thus  it  is  that  on  all  the  points  of  the  globe 
where  sometime  great  and  flourishing  nations  have 
held  their  place,  then  yielded  to  other  nations  or 
to  absolute  devastation-in  Egypt,  in  India,  in  Per- 
sia    in  the  valley  of  the  Tigris  and   Euphrates,  in 
the  sandy,  now  desert  plains  of  Syria,  in  the  once 
more  populous  haunts  of  ancient  Rome  and  Greece 
-the  traveller  meets  clusters  of  great  ruins,  lofty 
still   in   their  utter    abandonment,   with   a   strange, 
stem  beauty  hovering  around  their  weather-beaten, 
gigantic  shafts  and  cornices,  wrapt  in  the  pathetic 
silence  of  desolation,  and  yet  not  dumb-for  their 
pictured  faces  eloquently  proclaim  the  tale  of  buoy- 
ant life  and  action   entrusted  to  them   many  thou- 
sands of  years  ago.     Sometimes,  it  is  a  natural  rock, 
cut   and  smoothed   down    at  a  height  sufBcient  to 
protect  it  from   the  wantonly  destructive  hand   of 
Lof^ng  invaders,  on  which  a  king  of  a  deeper  turn 
of  thought,  more  mindful  than   others  of  the   law 
which  dooms  all  the  works  of  men  to  decay,  has 
caused  a  relation  of  the  principal  events  of  his  reign 
to  be  engraved  in  those  curious  characters  which 
have  for  centuries  been  a  puzzle  and  an   enigma. 
Many   tombs  also,  besides   the   remains  of    the   re- 
nowned or  wealthy  dead,  for  whom  they  have  been 
erected  at  a  cost  as  extravagant  and  with  art  as 


lOO  INTRODUCTION. 

elaborate  as  the  abodes  of  the  Hving,  co.itain  the 
full  description  of  their  inmate's  lineage,  his  life,  his 
habits  and  pursuits,  with  prayers  and  invocations 
to  the  divinities  of  his  race  and  descriptions  or  por- 
trayed representations  of  religious  ceremonies.  Or, 
the  walls  of  caves,  either  natural,  or  cut  in  the  rock 
for  purposes  of  shelter  or  concealment,  yield  to  the 
explorer  some  more  chapters  out  of  the  old,  old 
story,  in  which  our  interest  never  slackens.  This 
story  man  has  himself  been  writing,  patiently,  labo- 
riously, on  every  surface  on  which  he  could  trace 
words  and  lines,  ever  since  he  has  been  familiar 
with  the  art  of  expressing  his  thoughts  in  visible 
signs, — and  so  each  such  surviving  memorial  may 
truly  be  called  a  stray  leaf,  half  miraculously  pre 
served  to  us,  out  of  the  great  Book  of  the  Past, 
which  it  has  been  the  task  of  scholars  through  ages, 
and  especially  during  the  last  eighty  years,  to  deci- 
pher and  teach  others  how  to  read. 

7.  Of  this  venerable  book  the  walls  of  the  Assyr- 
ian palaces,  with  their  endless  rows  of  inscriptions, 
telling  year  for  year  through  centuries  the  history  of 
the  kings  who  built  them,  are  so  many  invaluable 
pages,  while  the  sculptures  which  accompany  these 
annals  are  the  illustrations,  lending  life  and  reality 
to  what  would  otherwise  be  a  string  of  dry  and 
unattractive  records.  But  a  greater  wonder  has 
been  brought  to  light  from  amidst  the  rubbish  and 
dust  of  twenty-five  centuries:  a  collection  of  lit- 
erary and  scientific  works,  of  religious  treatises,  of 
private  and  public  documents,  deposited  in  rooms 
constructed  on  purpose  to  contain  them,  arranged 


4S-— ENTRANCE   TO   THE   ROYAL    LIBRARY    (KUVUNJIK-NINEVEH). 


I02 


INTRODUCTION. 


in  admirable  order,  in  short — a  Library.  Truly 
and  literally  a  library,  in  the  sense  in  which  we  use 
the  word.  Not  the  only  one  either,  nor  the  first  by 
many  hundred  years,  although  the  volumes  are  of 
singular  make  and  little  like  those  we  are  used  to. 

8.  When  Layard  was  at  work  for  the  second  time 
amidst  the  ruins  along  the  Tigris,  he  devoted  much 
of  his  labor  to  the  great  mound  of  Koyunjik,  in 
which  the  remains  of  two  sumptuous  palaces  were 
distinctly  discerned,  one  of  them  the  royal  residence 
of  Sennacherib,  the  other  that  of  his  grandson 
Asshurbanipal,  who  lived  some  650  years  before 
Christ— two  of  the  mightiest  conquerors  and  most 
magnificent  sovereigns  of  the  Eastern  world.  In 
the  latter  palace  he  came  upon  two  comparatively 
small  chambers,  the  floor  of  which  was  entirely  lit- 
tered with  fragments — some  of  considerable  size, 
some  very  small — of  bricks,  or  rather  baked-clay 
tablets,  covered  on  both  sides  with  cuneiform  writ- 
ing. It  was  a  layer  more  than  a  foot  in  height 
which  must  have  been  formed  by  the  falling  in  of 
the  upper  part  of  the  edifice.  The  tablets,  piled  in 
good  order  along  the  walls,  perhaps  in  an  upper 
story — if,  as  many  think,  there  was  one — must  have 
been  precipitated  promiscuously  into  the  apartment 
and  shattered  by  the  fall.  Yet,  incredible  as  it  may 
appear,  several  were  found  entire.  Layard  filled 
many  cases  with  the  fragments  and  sent  them  off 
to  the  British  Museum,  fully  aware  of  their  prob- 
able historical  value. 

There  they  lay  for  years,  heaped  up  at  random,  a 
mine  of  treasures  which  made  the  mouths  of  schol- 


THE  HOOK  OF  THE  PAST.  103 

ais  water,  but  appalled  them  by  the  amount  of 
labor,  na)',  actual  drudgery,  needful  only  to  sift  and 
sort  them,  even  before  any  study  of  their  contents 
could  be  begun.  At  length  a  young  and  ambitious 
archaeologist,  attached  to  the  British  Museum, 
George  Smith,  undertook  the  long  and  wearisome 
task.  He  was  not  originally  a  scholar,  but  an  en- 
graver, and  was  employed  to  engrave  on  wood 
cuneiform  texts  for  the  magnificent  atlas  edited 
by  the  British  Museum  under  the  title  of  "Cunei- 
form Inscriptions  of  Western  Asia."  Being  en- 
dowed with  a  quick  and  enquiring  mind.  Smith 
did  not  content  himself,  like  most  of  his  colleagues, 
with  a  conscientious  and  artistic,  but  merely  tech- 
nical reproduction  ;  he  wished  to  know  wJiat  he  was 
doing  and  he  learned  the  language  of  the  inscrip- 
tions. When  he  took  on  himself  the  sorting  of  the 
fragments,  it  was  in  the  hope  of  distinguishing  him- 
self in  this  new  field,  and  of  rendering  a  substantial 
service  to  the  science  which  had  fascinated  him. 
Nor  was  he  deceived  in  this  hope.  He  succeeded 
in  finding  and  uniting  a  large  quantity  of  fragments 
belonging  together,  and  thus  restoring  pages  of 
writing,  with  here  and  there  a  damaged  line,  a  word 
effaced,  a  broken  corner,  often  a  larger  portion 
missing,  but  still  enough  left  to  form  continuous 
and  readable  texts.  In  some  cases  it  was  found 
that  there  was  more  than  one  copy  of  this  or  that 
work  or  document,  and  then  sometimes  the  parts 
which  were  hopelessly  injured  in  one  copy,  would 
be  found  whole  or  nearly  so  in  another. 

The  results  accomplished  by  this  patient  median- 


I04 


INTRODUCTION. 


ical  process  were  something  astonishing.  And 
when  he  at  length  restored  in  this  manner  a  series  of 
twelve  tablets  containing  an  entire  poem  of  the 
greatest  antiquity  and  highest  interest,  the  occasion 
seemed  important  enough  to  warrant  the  enterpris- 
ing owners  of  the  London  Daily  TclcgrapJi  in  send- 
ing the  young  student  to  resume  excavations  and 
try  to  complete  some  missing  links.  For  of  some  of 
the  tablets  restored  by  him  only  portions  could  be 
found  among  the  fragments  of  the  British  Museum. 
Of  course  he  made  his  way  straight  to  the  Archive 
Chambers  at  Koyunjik,  had  them  opened  again 
and  cleared  them  of  another  large  instalment  of 
their  valuable  contents,  among  which  he  had  the 
inconceivable  good  fortune  to  find  some  of  the  very 
pieces  which  were  missing  in  his  collection.  Joy- 
fully he  returned  to  England  twice  with  his  treas- 
ures, and  hopefully  set  out  on  a  third  expedition  of 
the  same  kind.  He  had  reason  to  feel  buoyant ;  he 
had  already  made  his  name  famous  by  several  works 
which  greatly  enriched  the  science  he  loved,  and 
had  he  not  half  a  life-time  before  him  to  continue 
the  work  which  few  could  do  as  well  ?  Alas,  he  lit- 
tle knew  that  his  career  was  to  be  cut  short  sud- 
denly by  a  loathsome  and  brutal  foe :  he  died  of 
the  plague  in  Syria,  in  1876 — just  thirty-six  years 
old.  He  was  faithful  to  the  end.  His  diary,  in 
which  he  made  some  entries  even  within  a  very 
few  days  before  his  death,  shows  that  at  the  last, 
when  he  knew  his  danger  and  was  fast  losing  hope, 
his  mind  was  equally  divided  between  thoughts  of 
his  family  and  of  his  work.     The  following  lines, 


THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PAST. 


105 


almost  the  last  intelligible  ones  he  wrote,  are  deeply 
touching  in  their  simple,  single-minded  earnestness: 
— "  Not  so  well.  If  Doctor  present,  I  should  re- 
cover, but  he  has  not  come  ,  very  doubtful  case  ;  if 
fatal  farewell  to.  .  .  .  My  ivork  has  been  entirely  for 
the  science  I  study.  .  .  .  There  is  a  large  field  of 
study  in  my  collection.  I  intended  to  work  it  out, 
but  desire  now  that  my  antiquities  and  notes  may 
be  thrown  open  to  all  students.  I  have  done  my 
duty  thoroughly.  I  do  not  fear'  the  change  but 
desire  to  live  for  my  family.  Perhaps  all  may  be 
well  yet." — George  Smith's  death  was  a  great  loss, 
which  his  brother-scholars  of  all  countries  have  not 
ceased  to  deplore.  But  the  work  now  proceeds 
vigorously  and  skilfully.  The  precious  texts  are 
sorted,  pieced,  and  classified,  and  a  collection  of 
them,  carefully  selected,  is  reproduced  by  the  aid 
of  the  photographer  and  the  engraver,  so  that, 
should  the  originals  ever  be  lost  or  destroyed,  (not 
a  very  probable  event),  the  Museum  indeed  would 
lose  one  of  its  most  precious  rarities,  but  science 
would  lose  nothing. 

9.  An  eminent  French  scholar  and  assyriologist, 
Joachim  Menant,  has  the  following  picturesque  lines 
in  his  charming  little  book  "La  BibliotJiequc  dii 
Palais  de  Ninive'':  "When  we  reflect  that  these 
records  have  been  traced  on  a  substance  which 
neither  fire  nor  water  could  destroy,  we  can  easily 
comprehend  how  those  who  wrote  them  thus  thirty 
or  forty  centuries  ago,  believed  the  monuments  of 
their  history  to  be  safe  for  all  future  times, — much 
safer  than  the    frail  sheets   which  printing  scatters 


I05  INTRODUCTION. 

with  such  prodigious  fertility.  ...  Of  all  the  na- 
tions who  have  bequeathed  to  us  written  records  of 
their  past  life,  we  may  assert  that  none  has  left 
monuments  more  imperishabl-^  than  Assyria  and 
Chaldca.  Their  number  is  already  considerable  ; 
it  is  daily  increased  by  new  discoveries.  It  is  not 
possible  to  foresee  what  the  future  has  in  store  for 
us  in  this  respect ;  but  we  can  even  now  make  a 
valuation  of  the  entire  material  which  wc  possess. 
....  The  number  of  the  tablets  from  the  Nineveh 
Library  alone  passes  ten  thousand.  ...  If  we  com- 
pare these  texts  with  those  left  us  by  other  nations, 
we  can  easily  become  convinced  that  the  history  of 
the  Assyro-Chaldean  civilization  will  soon  be  one  of 
the  best  known  of  antiquity.  It  has  a  powerful 
attraction  for  us.  for  we  know  that  the  life  of  the 
Jewish  people  is  mixed  up  with  the  history  of  Nin- 
eveh and  l^abylon.  ..." 

lo.  It  will  be  seen  from  this  that  throughout  the 
following  pages  we  shall  continually  have  to  refer 
to  the  contents  of  Asshurbanipal's  royal  library. 
We  must  therefore  dispense  in  this  place  with  any 
details  concerning  the  books,  more  than  a  general 
survey  of  the  subjects  they  treated.  Of  these,  reli- 
gion and  science  were  the  chief.  Under  ''  science  " 
we  must  understand  principally  mathematics  and 
astronomy,  two  branches  in  which  the  old  Chaldeans 
reached  great  perfection  and  left  us  many  of  our 
own  most  fundamental  notions  and  practices,  as  we 
shall  see  later  on.  Among  the  scientific  works  must 
also  be  counted  those  on^ast^rology,  i.e.,  on  the  inflji- 
ence  which  the  heavenly  bodies  were  supposed  to 


liiM#a'<:^ 


*Mri<]*:-| 


^^i^^i^<-:^ 


Mateia-?4t^ 


I-     t^ 

5  I 


I08  INTKODUCTIOX. 

exert  on  the  fate  of  men,  according  to  their  positions 
and  combinations,  for  astrology  was  considered  a 
real  science,  not  only  by  the  Chaldeans,  but  by 
much  later  nations  too ;  also  hand-books  of  geogra- 
phy, really  only  lists  of  the  seas,  mountains  and 
rivers,  nations  and  cities  then  known,  lastly  lists  of 
plants  and  animals  with  a  very  rude  and  defective 
attempt  at  some  sort  of  classification.  History  is 
but  scantily  represented ;  it  appears  to  have  been 
mostly  confined  to  the  great  wall  inscriptions  and 
some  other  objects,  of  which  more  hereafter.  But 
— what  we  should  least  expect — grammars,  diction- 
aries, school  reading-books,  occupy  a  prominent 
place.  The  reason  is  that,  when  this  library  was 
founded,  the  language  in  which  the  venerable  books 
of  ancient  sages  were  written  not  onl\'  was  not 
spoken  any  longer,  but  had  for  centuries  been  for- 
gotten by  all  but  the  priests  and  those  who  made 
scholarship  their  chief  pursuit,  so  that  it  had  to  be 
taught  in  the  same  way  that  the  so-called  "  dead 
languages,"  Latin  and  Greek,  are  taught  at  our 
colleges.  This  was  the  more  necessary  as  the 
prayers  had  to  be  recited  in  the  old  language  called 
the  Accadian,  that  being  considered  more  holy — just 
as,  in  Catholic  countries,  the  common  people  are 
even  now  made  to  learn  and  say  their  prayers  in 
Latin,  though  they  understand  not  a  word  of  the 
language.  The  ancient  Accadian  texts  were  mostly 
copied  with  a  modern  Assyri_an  translation,  either 
interlinear  or  facing  it,  which  has  been  of  immense 
service  to  those  who  now  decipher  the  tablets. 

II.  So  much  for  what  may  be  called  the  classical 


THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PAST.  109 

and  reference  department  of  the  library.  Important 
as  it  is,  it  is  scarcely  more  so  than  the  documentary 
department  or  Archive  proper,  where  documents 
and  deeds  of  all  kinds,  both  public  and  private,  were 
deposited  for  safe  keeping.  Here  by  the  side  of 
treatises,  royal  decrees  and  despatches,  lists  of  trib- 
ute, reports,  from  generals  and  governors,  also  those 
daily  sent  in  by  the  superintendents  of  the  royal 
observatories,— we  find  innumerable  private  docu- 
ments: deeds  of  sale  duly  signed,  witnessed  and 
sealed,  for  land,  houses,  slaves— any  kind  of  prop- 
erty,—of  money  lent,  of  mortgages,  with  the  rate 
of  interest,  contracts  of 
all  sorts.  The  most  re- 
markable of  private  doc-  -^ 
uments  is  one  which  has 
been  called  the  "  will  of  47._inscribed  clay  tablet. 
King   Sennacherib,"  by  (Smith's "Assyria.") 

which  he  entrusts  some  valuable  personal  prop- 
erty to  the  priests  of  the  temple  of  Nebo,  to  be 
kept  for  his  favorite  son,— whether  to  be  delivered 
after  his— the  king's— death  or  at  another  time  is 
not  stated. 

12.  It  requires  some  effort  to  bear  in  mind  the  na- 
ture and  looks  of  the  things  which  we  must  represent 
to  ourselves  when  we  talk  of  Assyrian  "  books:'  The 
following  is  the  portrait  of  a  ''volume''  in  perfect 
condition.  But  it  is  seldom  indeed  that  one  such  is 
found.  Layard,  in  his  first  description  of  his  start- 
ling "  find,"  says  :  "  They  (the  tablets)  were  of  differ- 
ent sizes;  the  largest  were  flat,  and  measured  nine 
inches  by  six  and  a  half ;  the  smaller  were  slightly 


IIO  INTKODL'CTIOX. 

convex,  and  some  were  not  more  than  an  inch  lonc^, 
with  but  one  or  two  lines  of  writint^.  The  cunei- 
form characters  on  most  of  them  were  singuhirly 
sharp  and  well-defined,  but  so  minute  in  some  in- 
stances as  to  be  illegible  without  a  magnifying 
glass."  Most  curiously,  glass  lenses  have  been 
found  among  the  ruins,  which  may  have  been  used 
for  the  purpose.  Specimens  have  also  been  found 
of  the  very  instruments  which  were  employed  to 
trace  the  cuneiform  characters,  and  their  form  suffi- 
ciently accounts  for  the  peculiar  shape  of  these 
characters  which  was  imitated  by  the  engravers  on 
stone.  It  is  a  little  iron  rod — (or  style,  as  the  an- 
cients used  to  call  such  implements) — not  sharp,  but 
triangular  at  the  end  :  ^.  By  slightly  pressing  this 
end  on  the  cake  of  soft  moist  clay  held  in  the  left 
hand  no  other  shape  of  sign  could  be  obtained  than 
a  wedge,  Y,  the  direction  being  determined  by  a 
turn  of  the  wrist,  presenting  the  instrument  in  dif- 
ferent positions.  When  one  side  of  the  tablet  was 
full,  the  other  was  to  be  filled.  If  it  was  small,  it 
was  sufficient  to  turn  it  over,  continuing  to  hold  the 
edges  between  the  thumb  and  third  finger  of  the  left 
hand.  But  if  the  tablet  was  large  and  had  to  be  laid 
on  a  table  to  be  written  on,  the  face  that  was  finished 
would  be  pressed  to  the  hard  surface,  and  the  clay 
being  soft,  the  writing  would  be  effaced.  This  was 
guarded  by  a  contrivance  as  ingenious  as  it  was 
simple.  Empty  places  were  left  here  and  there  in 
the  lines,  in  which  were  stuck  small  pegs,  like 
matches.  On  these  the  tablet  was  supported  when 
turned  over,  and  also  while  being  baked  in  the  oven. 


THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PAST. 


Ill 


On  many  of  the  tablets  that  have  been  preserved 
are  to  be  seen  little  holes  or  dints,  where  the  pegs 
have  been  stuck.     Still,  it  should  be  mentioned  that 


48. — ^TABLET. 

(Rawlinson.) 

these  holes  are  not  confined  to  the  large  tablets  and 
not  found  on  all  large  tablets.  When  the  tablet 
was  full,  it  was  allowed  to  dry,  then  generally,  but 


I  12 


INTKODCCTIOX. 


not  always,  baked.  Within  the  last  few  years  sev- 
eral thousands  unbaked  tablets  have  been  found  in 
Babylonia;  the)'  crumbled  into  dust  under  the  find- 
ers' fingers.  It  was  then  proposed  to  bake  such  of 
them  as  could  at  all  bear  handling.  The  exper- 
iment was  successful,  and  numbers  of  valuable 
documents  were  thus  preserved  and  transported  to 
the  great  repository  of  the  British  Museum.  The 
tablets  are  covered  with  writing  on  both  sides  and 
most  accurately  classed  and  numbered,  when  they 
form  part  of  a  series,  in  which  case  they  are  all  of 

the  same  shape  and  size. 
The  poem  discovered  by 
George  Smith  is  written 
out  on  twelve  tablets, 
each  of  which  is  a  sepa- 
rate book  or  chapter  of 
the  whole.  There  is  an 
astronomical  work  in  over 
49.— SEAL  CYLINDER.  sevcntv  tablcts.    The  first 

of  them  begins  with  the  words:  ''  When  the  gods 
Ann  and .  .  .  ."  These  words  are  taken  as  the  title 
of  the  entire  series.  Each  tablet  bears  the  notice: 
First,  second,  third  tablet  of  "  JFhen  the  gods  Ann 
and .  ..."  To  guard  against  all  chance  of  confusion, 
the  last  line  of  one  tablet  is  repeated  as  the  first  line 
of  the  following  one — a  fashion  which  we  still  see 
in  old  books,  where  the  last  word  or  two  at  the  bot- 
tom of  a  page  is  repeated  at  the  top  of  the  next. 

13.  The  clay  tablets  of  the  ancient  Chaldeans  are 
distinguished  from  the  Assyrian  ones  by  a  curious 
peculiarity:  they  are  sometimes  enclosed  in  a  case 


THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PA^T. 


"3 


of  the  same  material,  with  exactly  the  same  inscrip- 
tion and  seals  as  on  the  inner  tablet,  even  more 
carefully  executed.  It  is  evidently  a  sort  of  dupli- 
cate document,  made  in  the  prevision  that  the  outer 


one  might  be  injured,  when  the  inner  record  would 
remain.  The  row  of  figures  across  the  tablet  is 
impressed  on  it  with  a  seal  called  from  its  shape  -a 
cylinder,  which  was  rolled  over  the  soft  moist  clay. 
These  cylinders  were  generally  of  some  valuable. 


114 


INTRODUCTION. 


hard  stone — jasper,  amethyst,  cornelian,  onyx,  agate, 
etc., — and  were  used  as  signet  rings  were  later  and 
are  still.  They  are  found  in  great  numbers,  being 
from  their  hardness  well-nigh  indestructible.  They 
were  generally  bored  through,  and  through  the  hole 
was  passed  either  a  string  to  wear  them  on,  or  a 
metal  axis,  to  roll  them  more  easily.  There  is  a 
large  and  most  valuable  collection  of  seal  c>lindcrs 
at  the  British  Museum.  Their  size  ranges  from  a 
quarter  of  an  inch  to  two  inches  or  a  little  more. 
But  cylinders  were  also  made  of  baked  clay  and 
larger  size,  and  then  serv^ed  a  different  purpose,  that 
of  historical  documents.  These  are  found  in  the 
foundations  of  palaces  and  temples,  mostly  in  the 
four  corners,  in  small  niches  or  chambers,  generally 
produced  by  leaving  out  one  or  more  bricks.  These 
tiny  monuments  range  from  a  couple  of  inches  to 
half  a  foot  in  height,  seldom  more  ;  they  are  some- 
times shaped  like  a  prism  with  several  faces  (mostly 
six),  sometimes  like  a  barrel,  and  covered  with  that 
compact  and  minute  writing  which  it  often  requires 
a  magnifying  glass  to  make  out.  Owing  to  their 
sheltered  position,  these  singular  records  are  gener- 
ally very  well  preserved.  Although  their  original 
destination  is  only  to  tell  by  whom  and  for  what  pur- 
pose the  building  has  been  erected,  they  frequently 
proceed  to  give  a  full  though  condensed  account  of 
the  respective  kings'  reigns,  so  tliat,  should  the  up- 
per structure  with  its  engraved  annals  be  destroyed 
by  the  vicissitudes  of  war  or  in  the  course  of  natural 
decay,  some  memorial  of  their  deeds  should  still  be 
preserved — a  prevision  which,   in  several  cases,  has 


51. — PRISMA    OF   SENNACHERIB 


iy6  IXTKODUCTIOX. 

been  literally  fulfilled.  Sometimes  the  manner  and 
material  of  these  records  were  still  more  fanciful. 
At  Khorsabad,  at  the  very  interior  part  of  the  con- 
struction, was  found  a  large  stone  chest,  which  en- 
closed several  inscribed  plates  in  various  materials. 
....  In  this  only  extant  specimen  of  an  Assyrian 
foundation  stone  were  found  one  little  golden  tab- 
let, one  of  silver,  others  of  copper,  lead  and  tin ;  a 
sixth  text  was  engraved  on  alabaster,  and  the  sev- 
enth document  was  written  on  the  chest  itself."  * 
Unfortunately  the  heavier  portion  of  this  remarka- 
ble find  was  sent  with  a  collection  which  foundered 
on  the  Tigris  and  was  lost.  Only  the  small  plates, 
— gold,  silver,  copper  and  tin  (antimonium  scholars 
now  think  it  to  be) — survived,  and  the  inscriptions 
on  them  have  been  read  and  translated.  They  all 
commemorate,  in  very  nearly  the  same  terms,  the 
foundation  and  erection  of  a  new  city  and  palace 
by  a  very  famous  king  and  conqueror,  generally 
(though  not  correctly)  called  Sargon,  and  three  of 
them  end  with  a  request  to  the  kings  his  successors 
to  keep  the  building  in  good  repair,  with  a  prayer 
for  their  welfare  if  they  do  and  a  heavy  curse  if  they 
fail  in  this  duty  :  "  Whoever  alters  the  works  of  my 
hand,  destroys  my  constructions,  pulls  down  the 
walls  which  I  have  raised, — may  Asshur,  Ninib,  Ra- 
man and  the  great  gods  who  dwell  there,  pluck  his 
name  and  seed  from  the  land  and  let  him  sit  bound 
at  the  feet  of  his  foe."  Most  inscriptions  end  with 
invocations  of  the  same  kind,  for,  in  the  -words  of 

*  Dr.  Julius  Oppert,  "  Records  of-the  Past,"  Vol.  XI.,  p.  31. 


THE  BOOK  OF  THE  PAST. 


117 


M^nant  :  "  it  was  not  mere  whim  which  impelled 
the  kings  of  Assyria  to  build  so  assiduously.  Pal- 
aces had  in  those  times  a  destination  which  they 
have  no  longer  in  ours.  Not  only  was  the  palace 
indeed  tlic  chvclli)ig  of  royalty,  as  the  inscriptions 
have  it, — it  was  also  the  Book,  which  each  sovereign 


52. —  INSCRIBED   CYLINDER    FROM    liORSIPPA. 

began  at  his  accession   to   the  throne  and  in  which 
he  was  to  record  the  history  of  his  reign."* 

And  each  such  book  of  brick  and  stone  we  can 
with  perfect  truth  call  a  chapter — or  a  volume — of 
the  great  Book  of  the  Past  whose  leaves  are  scat- 
tered over  the  face  of  the  earth. 

*  "Les  Ecritures  Cuneiformes,"  of  Joachim  Menant :  page  198 
{2d  edition,  1864). 


THE    STORY    OF    CHALDEA. 


NOMADS    AND    SETTLERS. — THE    FOUR    .STAGES    OF 
CULTURE. 

I.  Men,  whatever  their  pursuit  or  business,  can 
live  only  in  one  of  two  ways :  they  can  stay  where 
they  are,  or  they  can  go  from  one  place  to  another. 
In  the  present  state  of  the  world,  we  generally  do  a 
little  of  both.  There  is  some  place — city,  village, 
or  farm — where  we  have  our  home  and  our  work. 
But  from  time  to  time  we  go  to  other  places,  on 
visits  or  on  business,  or  travel  for  a  certain  length 
of  time  to  great  distances  and  man}'  places,  for  in- 
struction and  pleasure.  Still,  there  is  usually  some 
place  which  wc  think  of  as  home  and  to  which  we 
return.  Wandering  or  roving  is  not  our  natural  or 
permanent  condition.  But  there  are  races  for  whom 
it  is.  The  Bedouin  Arabs  are  the  principal  and  best 
known  of  such  races.  Who  has  not  read  with  de- 
light accounts  of  their  wild  life  in  the  deserts  of 
Arabia  and  Northern  Africa,  so  full  of  adventure 
and  romance, — of  their  wonderful,  priceless  horses 

ii8 


NOMADS  AND  SETTLERS. 


119 


who  arc  to  them  as  their  own  children, — of  their 
noble  qualities,  bravery,  hospitality,  generosity,  so 
strangely  blended  with  love  of  booty  and  a  passion 
for  robbing  expeditions  ?  They  are  indeed  a  noble 
race,  and  it  is  not  their  choice,  but  their  countr\- 
which  has  made  them  robbers  and  rovers — Nomads, 
as  such  wandering  races  are  called  in  history  and 
geography.  They  cannot  build  cities  on  the  sand 
of  the  desert,  and  the  small  patches  of  pasture  and 
palm  groves,  kept  fresh  and  green  by  solitary 
springs  and  called  **  oases,"  are  too  far  apart,  too 
distant  from  permanently  peopled  regions  to  admit 
of  comfortable  settlement.  In  the  south  of  Arabia 
and  along  the  sea-shore,  where  the  land  is  fertile 
and  inviting,  they  live  much  as  other  nations  do, 
and  when,  a  thousand  years  ago,  Arabs  conquered 
vast  and  wealthy  countries  both  in  Europe  and  Asia, 
and  in  Africa  too,  they  not  only  became  model 
husbandmen,  but  built  some  of  the  finest  cities 
in  the  world,  had  wise  and  strictly  enforced  laws 
and  took  the  lead  in  literature  and  science.  Very 
different  are  the  scattered  nomadic  tribes  which 
still  roam  the  steppes  of  Eastern  Russia,  of  Siberia 
and  Central  Asia.  They  are  not  as  gifted  by  far  as 
the  Arabs,  yet  would  probably  quickly  settle  down 
to  farming,  were  it  not  that  their  wealth  consists  in 
flocks  of  sheep  and  studs  of  horses,  which  require 
the  pasture  yielded  so  abundantly  by  the  grassy 
steppes,  and  with  which  they  have  to  move  from 
one  place,  wdien  it  is  browsed  bare,  to  another, 
and  still  another,  carrying  their  felt-tents  and  sim- 
ple utensils  with   them,  living  on  the  milk  of  their 


I20 


THE  STORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 


mares  and  the  meat  of  their  sheep.  The  Red  In- 
dian tribes  of  the  far  West  present  still  another  as- 
pect of  nomadic  life — that  of  the  hunter,  fierce  and 
entirely  untamed,  the  simplest  and  wildest  of  all. 

2.  On  the  whole,  however,  nomadic  life  is  at  the 
present  day  the  exception.  Most  of  the  nations 
that  are  not  savages  live  in  houses,  not  in  portable 
tents,  in  cities,  not  encampments,  and  form  com- 
pact, solidly  bound  communities,  not  loose  sets  of 
tribes,  now  friendly,  now  hostile  to  one  another. 
But  it  has  not  always  been  so.  There  have  been 
times  when  settled  life  was  the  exception  and  no- 
madic life  the  rule.  And  the  older  the  times,  the 
fewer  were  the  permanent  communities,  the  more 
numerous  the  roving  tribes.  For  wandering  in 
search  of  better  places  must  have  been  among  the 
first  impulses  of  intelligent  humanity.  Even  when 
men  had  no  shelter  but  caves,  no  pursuit  but  hunt- 
ing the  animals,  whose  flesh  was  their  food  and  in 
whose  skins  they  clothed  themselves,  they  must  fre- 
quently have  gone  forth,  in  families  or  detachments, 
either  to  escape  from  a  neighborhood  too  much  in- 
fested with  the  gigantic  wild  beasts  which  at  one 
time  peopled  the  earth  more  thickly  than  men,  or 
simply  because  the  numbers  of  the  original  cave- 
dwellers  had  become  too  great  for  the  cave  to  hold 
them.  The  latter  must  have  been  a  very  usual  oc- 
currence :  families  stayed  together  until  they  had 
no  longer  room  enough,  or  quarrelled,  when  they 
separated.  Those  who  went  never  saw  again  the 
place  and  kindred  they  left,  although  they  carried 
with  them  memories   of  both,  the  few   simple   arts 


NOMADS  AX D  SETTLERS.  121 

they  had  learned  there  and  the  customs  in  wliich 
they  had  been  trained.  They  would  stop  at  some 
congenial  halting-place,  when,  after  a  time,  the 
same  process  would  be  repeated — and  so  again  and 
again. 

3.  How  was  the  first  horse  conquered,  the  first 
wild-dog  tamed  and  conciliated?  How  were  cattle 
first  enticed  to  give  man  their  milk,  to  depend  on 
his  care  and  follow  his  movements  ?  Who  shall  tell  ? 
However  that  may  have  happened,  it  is  certain  that 
the  transition  from  a  hunter's  wild,  irregular  and 
almost  necessarily  lawless  existence  to  the  gentler 
pursuits  of  pastoral  life  must  have  been  attended  by 
a  great  change  in  manners  and  character.  The  feel- 
ing of  ownership  too,  one  of  the  principal  promo- 
ters of  a  well-regulated  state  of  society,  must  have 
quickly  developed  with  the  possession  of  rapidly  in- 
creasing wealth  in  sheep  and  horses, — the  principal 
property  of  nomadic  races.  But  it  was  not  a  kind 
of  property  which  encouraged  to  settling,  or  uniting 
in  close  communities  ;  quite  the  contrary.  Large 
flocks  need  vast  pasture-grounds.  Besides,  it  is  de- 
sirable to  keep  them  apart  in  order  to  avoid  confu- 
sion and  disputes  about  wells  and  springs,  those 
rare  treasures  of  the  steppes,  which  are  liable  to  ex- 
haustion or  drying  up,  and  which,  therefore,  one 
flock-owner  is  not  likely  to  share  with  another, 
though  that  other  were  of  his  own  race  and  kin. 
The  Book  of  Genesis,  which  gives  us  so  faithful  and 
lively  a  picture  of  this  nomadic  pastoral  life  of  an- 
cient nations,  in  the  account  of  the  wanderings  of 
Abraham  and  the  other  Hebrew  patriarchs,  has  pre- 


1 2  2  THE  S  TOR  Y  OF  CHA  LDEA . 

served  such  an  incident  in  the  quarrel  between 
the  herdsmen  of  Abraham  and  his  nephew  Lot, 
which  led  to  their  separation.  This  is  what  Abra- 
ham said  to  Lot:  "Is  not  the  whole  land  before 
thee?  Separate  thyself,  I  pray  thee,  from  me:  if 
thou  wilt  take  the  left  hand,  then  I  will  go  to  the 
right ;  or  if  thou  depart  to  the  right  hand,  then  I 
will  go  to  the  left."  *  So  also  it  is  said  of  Esau  that 
he  "went  into  the  country  from  the  face  of  his 
brother  Jacob :  for  their  riches  were  more  than 
they  might  dwell  together,  and  the  land  wherein 
they  were  strangers  could  not  bear  them  be- 
cause of  their  cattle."  f  This  was  a  facility  of- 
fered by  those  immense  plains,  unclaimed  as  yet  by 
any  one  people  in  particular,  and  which  must  oft- 
times  have  averted  strife  and  bloodshed,  but  which 
ceased  from  the  moment  that  some  one  tribe,  tired 
of  wandering  or  tempted  by  some  more  than 
usually  engaging  spot,  settled  down  on  it,  mark- 
ing that  and  the  country  around  it,  as  far  as  its 
power  reached,  for  its  own.  There  is  even  now  in 
the  East  something  very  similar  to  this  mode  of 
occupation.  In  the  Turkish  Empire,  which  is,  in 
many  places,  thinly  peopled,  there  are  large  tracts 
of  waste  land,  sometimes  very  fertile,  accounted  as 
nobody's  property,  and  acknowledged  to  belong, 
legally  and  forever,  to  the  first  man  who  takes  pos- 
session of  them,  provided  he  cultivates  them.  The 
government  asks  no  purchase  price  for  the  land,  but 

♦Genesis,  xiii.  7-1 1.  t  Genesis,  .x.\xvi.  6-7. 


NOMADS  AND  SE  TTL ERS.  \  2  3 

demands  taxes  from  it  as  soon  as  it  has  found  an 
owner  and  begins  to  yield  crops. 

4.  The  pastoral  nomad's  life  is,  like  the  hunter's, 
a  singularly  free  one,— free  both  from  restraint,  and, 
comparatively,  from  toil.  For  watching  and  tend- 
ing flocks  is  not  a  laborious  occupation,  and  no  au- 
thority can  always  reach  or  weigh  very  heavily  on 
people  who  are  here  to-day  and  elsewhere  to-mor- 
row. Therefore,  it  is  only  with  the  third  stage  of 
human  existence,  the  agricultural  one,  that  civiliza- 
tion, which  cannot  subsist  without  permanent  homes 
and  authority,  really  commences.  The  farmer's 
homestead  is  the  beginning  of  the  State,  as  the 
hearth  or  fireplace  was  the  beginning  of  the  family. 
The  different  labors  of  the  fields,  the  house,  and  the 
dairy  require  a  great  number  of  hands  and  a  well- 
regulated  distribution  of  the  work,  and  so  keep  sev- 
eral generations  of  the  settler's  family  together,  on 
the  same  farm.  Life  in  common  makes  it  absolutely 
necessary  to  have  a  set  of  simple  rules  for  home 
government,  to  prevent  disputes,  keep  up  order 
and  harmony,  and  settle  questions  of  mutual  rights 
and  duties.  Who  should  set  down  and  enforce 
these  rules  but  the  head  of  the  family,  the  founder 
of  the  race — the  patriarch?  And  when  the  family 
has  become  too  numerous  for  the  original  homestead 
to  hold  it,  and  part  of  it  has  to  leave  it,  to  found  a 
new  home  for  itself,  it  does  not,  as  in  the  primitive 
nomadic  times,  wander  off  at  random  and  break  all 
ties,  but  settles  close  by  on  a  portion  of  the  family 
land,  or  takes  possession  of  a  new  piece  of  ground 
somewhat  further  off,  but  still  within  easy  reach.     In 


124  THE  STOKY  OF  CHALDEA. 

the  first  case  the  land  which  had  been  common  prop- 
erty gets  broken  up  into  lots,  which,  though  belong- 
ing more  particularly  to  the  members  who  separate 
from  the  old  stock,  are  not  for  that  withdrawn  from 
the  authority  of  the  patriarch.  There  are  several 
homesteads  now,  which  form  a  village,  and,  later  on, 
several  villages ;  but  the  bond  of  kindred,  of  tradi- 
tion and  custom  is  religiously  preserved,  as  well  as 
subordination  to  the  common  head  of  the  race, 
whose  power  keeps  increasing  as  the  community 
grows  in  numbers  and  extent  of  land,  as  the  greater 
complications  of  relationships,  property,  inherit- 
ance, demand  more  laws  and  a  stricter  rule, — until 
he  becomes  not  so  much  Father  as  King.  Then 
naturally  come  collisions  with  neighboring  similar 
settlements,  friendly  or  hostile,  which  result  in  alli- 
ances or  quarrels,  trade  or  war,  and  herewith  we 
have  the  State  complete,  with  inner  organization 
and  foreign  policy. 

5.  This  stage  of  culture,  in  its  higher  develop- 
ment, combines  with  the  fourth  and  last — city-build- 
ing, and  city-life,  when  men  of  the  same  race,  and 
conscious  of  a  common  origin,  but  practically  stran- 
gers to  each  other,  form  settlements  on  a  large  scale, 
which,  being  enclosed  in  walls,  become  places  of 
refuge  and  defence,  centres  of  commerce,  industry 
and  government.  For,  when  a  community  has 
become  very  numerous,  with  wants  multiplied  by 
continual  improvements  and  increasing  culture,  each 
family  can  no  longer  make  all  the  things  it  needs, 
and  a  portion  of  the  population  devotes  itself  to 
manufacture  and  arts,  occupations  best  pursued  in 


NOMADS  AND  SETTLERS. 


125 


cities,  while  the  other  goes  on  cultivating  the  land 
and  raising  cattle,  the  two  sets  of  produces — those 
of  nature  and  those  of  the  cunning  hand  and  brain 
— being  bartered  one  for  the  other,  or,  when  coin  is 
invented,  exchanged  through  that  more  convenient 
medium.  In  the  same  manner,  the  task  of  govern- 
ment having  become  too  manifold  and  complicated 
for  one  man,  the  former  Patriarch,  now  King,  is 
obliged  to  surround  himself  with  assistants — either 
the  elders  of  the  race,  or  persons  of  his  own  choice, 
— and  send  others  to  different  places,  to  rule  in  his 
name  and  under  his  authority.  The  city  in  which 
the  King  and  his  immediate  ministers  and  officers 
reside,  naturally  becomes  the  most  important  one — 
the  Capital  of  the  State. 

6.  It  does  not  follow  by  any  means  that  a  people, 
once  settled,  never  stirred  from  its  adopted  country. 
The  migratory  or  wandering  instinct  never  quite 
died  out — our  own  love  of  travelling  sufficiently 
proves  that — and  it  was  no  unfrequent  occurrence 
in  very  ancient  times  for  large  tribes,  even  portions 
of  nations,  to  start  off  again  in  search  of  new  homes 
and  to  found  new  cities,  compelled  thereto  either 
by  the  gradual  overcrowding  of  the  old  country,  or 
by  intestine  discords,  or  by  the  invasion  of  new 
nomadic  tribes  of  a  different  race  who  drove  the  old 
settlers  before  them  to  take  possession  of  their  settle- 
ments, massacred  them  if  they  resisted  and  reduced 
those  who  remained  to  an  irksome  subjection. 
Such  invasions,  of  course,  might  also  be  perpetrated 
with  the  same  results  by  regular  armies,  led  by  kings 
and  generals  from  some  other  settled  and  organized 


126  THE  STORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 

country.  The  alternative  between  bondage  and 
emigration  must  have  been  frequently  offered,  and 
the  choice  in  favor  of  the  latter  was  helped  not  a 
little  by  the  spirit  of  adventure  inborn  in  man, 
tempted  by  so  many  unexplored  regions  as  there 
were  in  those  remote  ages. 

7.  Such  have  been  the  beginnings  of  all  nations. 
There  can  be  no  other.  And  there  is  one  more 
observation  which  will  scarcely  ever  prove  wrong. 
It  is  that,  however  far  we  may  go  back  into  the  past, 
the  people  whom  we  find  inhabiting  any  country  at 
the  very  dawn  of  tradition,  can  always  be  shown  to 
have  come  from  somewhere  else,  and  not  to  have 
been  the  first  either.  Every  swarm  of  nomads  or 
adventurers  who  either  pass  through  a  country  or 
stop  and  settle  there,  always  find  it  occupied  al- 
ready. Now  the  older  population  was  hardly  ever 
entirely  destroyed  or  dislodged  by  the  new-comers. 
A  portion  at  least  remained,  as  an  inferior  or  sub- 
ject race,  but  in  time  came  to  mix  with  them, 
mostly  in  the  way  of  intermarriage.  Then  again,  if 
the  new-comers  were  peaceable  and  there  was  room 
enough — which  there  generally  was  in  very  early 
times— they  would  frequently  be  suffered  to  form 
separate  settlements,  and  dwell  in  the  land  ;  when 
they  would  either  remain  in  a  subordinate  condi- 
tion, or,  if  they  were  the  finer  and  better  gifted 
race,  they  would  quickly  take  the  upper  hand,  teach 
the  old  settlers  their  own  arts  and  ideas,  their  man- 
ners and  their  laws.  If  the  new  settlement  was 
effected  by  conquest,  the  arrangement  was  short  and 
simple:  the  conquerors,  though   less  numerous,  at 


NOMADS  AND  SETTLERS. 


127 


once  established  themselves  as  masters  and  formed 
a  ruling  nobility,  an  aristocracy,  while  the  old  own- 
ers of  the  land,  those  at  least  that  did  not  choose  to 
emigrate,  became  what  may  be  called  "  the  com- 
mon people,"  bound  to  do  service  and  pay  tribute 
or  taxes  to  their  self-instituted  masters.  Every 
country  has  generally  experienced,  at  various  times, 
all  these  modes  of  invasion,  so  that  each  nation  may 
be  said  to  have  been  formed  gradually,  in  successive 
layers,  as  it  were,  and  often  of  very  different  ele- 
ments, which  either  finally  amalgamated  or  kept 
apart,  according  to  circumstances. 

The  early  history  of  Chaldeais  a  particularly  good 
illustration  of  all  that  has  just  been  said. 


IT. 


THE   GREAT   RACES. — CHAPTER   X.    OF   GENESIS. 


1.  The  Bible  says  (Genesis  xi.  2) :  "And  it  came 
to  pass,  as  they  journeyed  in  the  cast,  that  they 
found  a  plain  in  the  land  of  Shinar  ;  and  they  dwelt 
there." 

Shinar — or,  more  correctly,  Shinear — is  what  ma}' 
be  called  Babylonia  proper,  that  part  of  Mesopota- 
mia where  Babylon  was,  and  south  of  it,  almost  to 
the  Gulf.  "They"  are  descendants  of  Noah,  loni;- 
after  the  Flood.  They  found  the  plain  and  dwelt 
there,  but  they  did  not  find  the  whole  land  desert  ; 
it  had  been  occupied  long  before  them.  Mow  long? 
For  such  remote  ages  an  exact  valuation  of  time  in 
years  is  not  to  be  thought  of. 

2.  What  people  were  those  whom  the  descendants 
of  Noah  found  in  the  land  to  which  they  came  from 
the  East?  It  seems  a  simple  question,  yet  no  an- 
swer could  have  been  given  to  it  even  as  lately  as 
fifteen  or  sixteen  years  ago,  and  when  the  answer 
was  first  suggested  by  unexpected  discoveries  made 
in  the  Royal  Library  at  Nineveh,  it  startled  the  dis- 
coverers extremely.  The  only  indication  on  the 
subject  then  known  was  this,  from  a  Chaldean 
writer  of  a  late  period  :  "  There  was  originally  at 

128 


THE  GREA  T  RACES 


129 


Babylon  "  (i.e.,  in  the  land  of  Babylon,  not  the  city 
alone)  "  a  multitude  of  men  of  foreign  race  who  had 
settled  in  Chaldea."  This  is  told  by  Berosus,  a 
learned  priest  of  Babylon,  who  liv^ed  immediately 
after  Alexander  the  Great  had  conquered  the  coun- 
try, and  when  the  Greeks  ruled  it  (somewhat  after 
300  B.C.).  He  wrote  a  history  of  it  from  the  most 
ancient  times,  in  which  he  gave  an  account  of  the 
oldest  traditions  concerning  its  beginnings.  As  he 
wrote  his  book  in  Greek,  it  is  probable  that  his  ob- 
ject was  to  acquaint  the  new  masters  with  the  his- 
tory and  religion  of  the  land  and  people  whom  they 
had  come  to  rule.  Unfortunately  the  work  was 
lost — as  so  many  valuable  works  have  been,  as  long 
as  there  was  no  printing,  and  books  existed  only  in 
a  few  manuscript  copies — and  we  know  of  it  only 
some  short  fragments,  quoted  by  later  writers,  in 
whose  time  Berosus'  history  was  still  accessible. 
The  above  lines  are  contained  in  one  such  fragment, 
and  naturally  led  to  the  question  :  who  were  these 
men  of  foreign  race  who  came  from  somewhere  else 
and  settled  in  Chaldea  in  immemorial  times? 

3.  One  thing  appears  clear:  they  belonged  to 
none  of  the  races  classed  in  the  Bible  as  descended 
from  Noah,  but  probably  to  one  far  older,  which 
had  not  been  included  in  the  Flood. 

4.  For  it  begins  to  be  pretty  generally  under- 
stood nowadays  that  the  Flood  may  not  have  been 
absolutely  universal,  but  have  extended  over  the 
countries  ivhich  the  Hcbrcivs  knew,  which  made  tJieir 
world,  and  that  not  literally  all  living  beings  except 
those  who  are  reported  to  have  been  in  the  Ark  may 


I  -.  o  THE  S  TOR  Y  OF  CHA  L  DEA . 

have  perished  in  it.  From  a  negligent  habit  of 
reading  Chap.  VI.-IX.  of  Genesis  without  reference 
to  the  texts  of  other  chapters  of  the  same  Book,  it 
has  become  a  general  habit  to  understand  it  in  this 
literal  manner.  Yet  the  evidence  is  by  no  means  so 
positive.  The  question  was  considered  an  open  one 
by  profounder  students  even  in  antiquity,  and  freely 
discussed  both  among  the  Jews  themselves  and  the 
Fathers  of  the  early  Christian  Church.  The  follow- 
ing are  the  statements  given  in  the  Book  of  Genesis; 
we  have  only  to  take  them  out  of  their  several  places 
and  connect  them. 

5.  When  Cain  had  killed  his  brother  Abel,  God 
banished  him  from  the  earth  which  had  received  his 
brother's  blood  and  laid  a  curse  on  him:  "  a  fugi- 
tive and  a  vagabond  shalt  thou  be  in  the  earth  " — 
using  another  word  than  the  first  time,  one  which 
means  earth  in  general  (^re^),  in  opposition  to  the 
earth  (adamah),  or  fruitful  land  to  the  east  of  Eden, 
in  which  Adam  and  Eve  dwelt  after  their  expulsion. 
Then  Cain  went  forth,  still  further  to  the  East,  and 
dwelt  in  a  land  which  was  called  "  the  land  of  Nod," 
that  is,  "  of  exile."  He  had  a  son,  Enoch,  after 
whom  he  named  the  city  which  he  built, — the  first 
city, — and  descendants.  Of  these  the  fifth,  Lamech, 
a  fierce  and  lawless  man,  had  three  sons,  two  of 
whom,  Jabal  and  Jubal,  led  a  pastoral  and  nomadic 
life;  but  the  third,  Tubalcain,  invented  the  use  of 
metals  :  he  was  "  the  forger  of  ever}-  cutting  instru- 
ment of  brass  and  iron."  This  is  what  the  Chap. 
IV.  of  Genesis  tells  of  Cain,  his  crime,  his  exile  and 
immediate  posterity.     After  that  they  are  heard  of 


THE  GREA  T  RA  CES.  1 3 1 


no  more.  Adam,  meanwhile,  has  a  third  son,  born 
after  he  had  lost  the  first  two  and  whom  he  calls 
Seth  (more  correctly  Shcth).  The  descendants  of 
this  son  are  enumerated  in  Chap.  V.  ;  the  list  ends 
with  Noah.  These  are  the  parallel  races:  the  ac- 
cursed and  the  blest,  the  proscribed  of  God  and  the 
loved  of  God,  the  one  that  "goes  out  of  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Lord'-  and  the  one  that  "calls  on  the 
name  of  the  Lord,"  and  "  walks  with  God.  Of  the 
latter  race  the  last-named,  Noah,  is  "a  just  man, 
perfect  in  his  generation,"  and  "finds  grace  in  the 

eyes  of  the  Lord." 

6  Then  comes  the  narrative  of  the  Flood  (Chap 
VI-VIIL),  the  covenant  of  God  with  Noah  and 
re-peopling  of  the  earth  by  his  posterity  (Chap. 
IX).  Lastly  Chap.  X.  gives  us  the  list  of  the  gen- 
erations of  Noah's  three  sons,  Shem,  Hani  and 
Japheth;-"of  these  were  the  nations  divided  m 
the  earth  after  the  flood."  .     .      ,1, 

7    Now   this   tenth    chapter   of    Genesis   is    the 
oldest  and  most  important  document  in  existence 
concerning   the  origins  of   races   and  nations,  and 
.     comprises  all    those  with  whom  the    Jews    in   the 
course  of  their  early  history,  have  had  any  dealings, 
at  least  all  those  who  belonged  to  the  great  white  di- 
vision of  mankind.     But  in  order  properly  to  under- 
stand   it  and  appreciate  its  value    and  bearing,   it 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  EACH  NAME  IN  THE  LIST 
IS    THAT   OF    A   RACE,   A   PEOPLE    OR    A  TRIBE.   NOP 
THAT  OF  A  MAN.     It  was  a  common  fashion  among 
the    Orientals-a  fashion  adopted   also  by  ancient 
European   nations-to  express  in  this  manner  the 


132 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


kindred  connections  of  nations  among  themselves 
and  their  differences.  Both  for  brevity  and  clear- 
ness, such  historical  genealogies  arc  very  convenient. 
They  must  have  been  suggested  by  a  proceeding 
most  natural  in  ages  of  ignorance,  and  which  con- 
sists in  a  tribe's  explaining  its  own  name  by  taking 
it  for  granted  that  it  was  that  of  its  founder.  Thus 
the  name  of  the  Assyrians  is  really  Asshur.  Why? 
Clearly,  they  would  answer,  if  asked  the  question, 
because  their  kingdom  was  founded  by  one  whose 
name  was  Asshur.  Another  famous  nation,  the 
Aramaeans,  are  supposed  to  be  so  called  because 
the  name  of  their  founder  was  Aram  ;  the  Hebrews 
name  themselves  from  a  similarly  supposed  ancestor, 
Heber.  These  three  nations, — and  several  more, 
the  Arabs  among  others — spoke  languages  so  much 
alike  that  they  could  easily  understand  each  other, 
and  had  generally  many  common  features  in  looks 
and  character.  How  account  for  that  ?  By  making 
their  founders,  Asshur,  and  Aram,  and  Heber,  etc., 
sons  or  descendants  of  one  great  head  or  progenitor, 
Shem,  a  son  of  Noah.  It  is  a  kind  of  parable  which 
is  extremely  clear  once  one  has  the  key  to  it,  when 
nothing  is  easier  than  to  translate  it  into  our  own 
sober,  positive  forms  of  speech.  The  above  bit  of 
genealogy  would  read  thus  :  A  large  portion  of  hu- 
manity is  distinguished  by  certain  features  more  or 
less  peculiar  to  itself ;  it  is  one  of  several  great  races, 
and  has  been  called  for  more  than  a  hundred  years 
the  Semitic,  (better  Shemitic)  race,  the  race  of 
Shem.  This  race  is  composed  of  many  different 
tribes  and  nations,  who  have  gone  each  its  own  way, 


THE  GREA  T  RACES. 


133 


have  each  its  own  name  and  history,  speak  dialects 
of  the  same  original  language,  and  have  preserved 
many  common  ideas,  customs  and  traits  of  character, 
— which  all  shows  that  the  race  was  once  united  and 
dwelt  together,  then,  as  it  increased  in  numbers, 
broke  up  into  fractions,  of  which  some  rose  to  be 
great  and  famous  nations  and  some  remained  com- 
paratively insignificant  tribes.  The  same  applies  to 
the  subdivisions  of  the  great  white  race  (the  whitest 
of  all)  to  which  nearly  all  the  European  nations  be- 
long, and  which  is  personified  in  the  Bible  under 
the  name  of  Japhct,  third  son  of  Noah, — and  to 
those  of  a  third  great  race,  also  originally  white, 
which  is  broken  ^p  into  very  many  fractions,  both 
great  nations  and  scattered  tribes,  all  exhibiting  a 
decided  likeness  to*  each  other.  The  Bible  gives 
the  names  of  all  these  most  carefully,  and  sums  up 
the  whole  of  them  under  the  name  of  the  second 
son  of  Noah,  Ham,  whom  it  calls  their  common  pro- 
genitor. 

8.  That  the  genealogies  of  Chap.  X.  of  Genesis 
should  be  understood  in  this  sense,  has  long  been 
admitted  by  scientists  and  churchmen.  St.  Augus- 
tine, one  of  the  greatest  among  the  Fathers  of  the 
early  church,  pointedly  says  that  the  names  in  it 
represent  "  nations,  not  men."*  On  the  other  hand 
there  is  also  literal  truth  in  them,  in  this  way,  that, 
if  all  mankind  is  descended  from  one  human  couple, 
every  fraction  of  it  must  necessarily  have  had  some 
one  particular  father  or  ancestor,  only  in  so  remote  a 

*  "  Gentes  non  homines"     (De  Civitate  Dei,  XVII.,  3.) 


134  THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

{jast  that  his  individuality  or  actual  name  cannot 
possibly  have  been  remembered,  when  every  people, 
as  has  been  remarked  above,  naturally  gave  him  its 
own  name.  Of  these  names  many  show  by  their 
very  nature  that  they  could  not  have  belonged  to 
individuals.  Some  are  plural,  like  MiZRAIM,  "  the 
Egyptians  ;  "  some  have  the  article :  "  the  Amorite, 
tJie  HivlTE  ;  "  one  even  is  the  name  of  a  city  :  SiDOX 
is  called  "the  first-born  of  Canaan;"  now  Sidon 
was  long  the  greatest  maritime  city  of  the  Canaan- 
ites,  who  held  an  undisputed  supremacy  over  the 
rest,  and  therefore  "  the  first-born."  The  name 
means  "  fisheries  " — an  appropriate  one  for  a  city  on 
the  sea,  which  must  of  course  ha^^e  been  at  first  a 
settlement  of  fishermen.  "  Canaan  "  really  is  the 
name  of  a  vast  region,  inhabifed  by  a  great  many 
nations  and  tribes,  all  differing  from  each  other  in 
many  ways,  yet  manifestly  of  one  race,  wherefore 
they  are  called  "  the  sons  of  Canaan,"  Canaan  being 
personified  in  a  common  ancestor,  given  as  one  of 
the  four  sons  of  Ham.  Modern  science  has,  for 
convenience'  sake,  adopted  a  special  word  for  such 
imaginary  personages,  invented  to  account  for  a 
nation's,  tribe's,  or  city's  name,  while  summing  up, 
so  to  speak,  its  individuality  :  they  are  called  EPO- 
NYMS.  The  word  is  Greek,  and  means  "  one  from 
whom  or  for  whom  somebody  or  something  is 
named,"  a  "  namesake."  It  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that,  while  popular  tradition  always  claims  that  the 
epon}-mous  ancestor  or  city-founder  gave  his  name 
to  his  family,  race,  or  city,  the  contrary  is  in  reality 
invariably  the  case,  the  name  of  the   race   or  city 


THE  GREAT  RACES. 


135 


being  transferred  to  him.  Or,  in  other  words,  the 
eponym  is  really  only  that  name,  transformed  into  a 
traditional  person  by  a  bold  and  vivid  poetical  fig- 
ure of  speech,  which,  if  taken  for  what  it  is,  makes 
the  beginnings  of  political  history  wonderfully  plain 
and  easy  to  grasp  and  classify. 

9.  Yet  complete  and  correct  as  is  the  list 
of  Chap.  X.,  within  the  limits  which  the  writer 
has  set  to  himself,  it  by  no  means  exhausts  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  The  reason  of  the  omissions, 
however,  is  easily  seen.  Among  the  posterity  of 
Japhet  the  Greeks  indeed  are  mentioned,  (under  the 
name  of  JAVAN,  which  should  be  pronounced  Yazvan, 
and  some  of  his  sons),  but  not  a  single  one  of  the 
other  ancient  peoples  of  Europe, — Germans,  Italians, 
Celts,  etc., — who  also  belonged  to  that  race,  as  we, 
their  descendants,  do.  But  then,  at  the  time  Chap. 
X.  was  written,  these  countries,  from  their  remote- 
ness, were  outside  of  the  world  in  which  the  Hebrews 
moved,  beyond  their  horizon,  so  to  speak.  They 
either  did  not  know  them  at  all,  or,  having  nothing 
to  do  with  them,  did  not  take  them  into  considera- 
tion. In  neither  case  would  they  have  been  given 
a  place  in  the  great  list.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
another  large  portion  of  the  same  race,  which  dwelt 
to  the  far  East  and  South  of  the  Hebrews — the 
Hindoos,  (the  white  conquerors  of  India),  and  the 
Persians.  There  came  a  time  indeed,  when  the 
latter  not  only  came  into  contact  with  the  Jews, 
but  were  their  masters ;  but  either  that  was  after 
Chap.  X.  was  written  or  the  Persians  were  identified 
by   the   writers   with    a    kindred    nation,    the    Per- 


136  I'ff^-  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

sians'  near  neighbor,  who  had  flourished  much 
earlier  and  reacted  in  many  ways  on  the  countries 
westward  of  it;  this  nation  was  the  Medes,  who, 
under  the  name  of  Mauai,  are  mentioned  as  one  of 
the  sons  of  Japhet,  with  Javan  the  Greek. 

10.  More  noticeable  and  more  significant  than 
these  partial  omissions  is  the  determination  with 
which  the  authors  of  Chap.  X.  consistently  ignore  all 
those  divisions  of  mankind  which  do  not  belong  to 
one  of  the  three  great  ivliitc  races.  Neither  the 
Black  nor  the  Yellow  races  are  mentioned  at  all ; 
they  are  left  without  the  pale  of  the  Hebrew  brother- 
hood of  nations.  Yet  the  Jews,  who  staid  three  or 
four  hundred  years  in  Egypt,  surely  learned  there 
to  know  the  real  negro,  for  the  Egyptians  were  con- 
tinually fighting  with  pure-blood  black  tribes  in  the 
south  and  south-west,  and  bringing  in  thousands  of 
black  captives,  who  were  made  to  work  at  their  great 
buildings  and  in  their  stone-quarries.  But  these 
people  were  too  utterly  barbarous  and  devoid  of  all 
culture  or  political  importance  to  be  taken  into  ac- 
count. Besides,  the  Jews  could  not  be  aware  of  the 
vast  extent  of  the  earth  occupied  by  the  black  race, 
since  the  greater  part  of  Africa  was  then  unknown 
to  the  world,  and  so  were  the  islands  to  the  south 
of  India,  also  Australia  and  its  islands — all  seats  of 
different  sections  of  that  race. 

11.  The  same  could  not  be  said  of  the  Yellow 
Race.  True,  its  principal  representatives,  the  na- 
tions of  the  far  East  of  Asia — the  Chinese,  the  Mon- 
gols and  the  Mandchous, — could  not  be  known  to 
the   Hebrews  at  any  time   of    antiquity,   but   there 


THE  GREA  T  KA  CES.  1 3  / 

were  more  than  enough  representatives  of  it  who 
could  not  be  ;.«known  to  them.*     For  it  was  both  a 
very  old  and  extremely  numerous  race,  which  early 
spread  over  the  greater  part  of  the  earth  and  at  one 
time  probably  equalled  in  numbers  the  rest  of  man- 
kind     It  seems  always  to  have  been  broken  up  mto 
a  -reat  many  tribes  and  peoples,  whom  it  has  been 
found  convenient  to  gather  under  the  general  desig- 
nation of  Turanians,  from  a  very  ancient  name,— 
TUR  or  TURA— which  was  given  them  by  the  white 
population  of  Persia  and  Central  Asia,  and  which  is 
still  preserved  in  that  of  one  of  their  principal  sur- 
viving   branches,    the    TURKS.     All    the    different 
members  of  this  great  family  have  had  very  strikmg 
features  in  common,-the  most  extraordinary  being 
an  incapability  of  reaching  the  highest  culture,  of 
progressing  indefinitely,  improving  continually.     A 
strange  law  of  their  being  seems  to  have  condemned 
them  to  stop  short,  when  they  had  attained  a  cer- 
tain, not  very  advanced,  stage.     Thus  their  speech 
has   remained    extremely  imperfect.     They  spoke, 
and  such  Turanian  nations  as  now  exist  still  speak, 
languages,  which,  however  they  may  differ,  all  have 
thi^  peculiarity,    that    they   are    composed    either 
entirely  of  monosyllables,  (the    most    rudimentary 
form  of  speech),  or   of   monosyllables   pieced  into 
words  in  the  stiffest,  most  unwieldy  manner,  stuck 

*  If,  as  has  been  suggested,  the    "land  of  Sinim  "  in  Isaiah  xlix 
12,  is  meant  for  China,  such  a  solitary,  incidental   and  unspecified 
mention  of  a  country  the  name  of  which  may  have  been  vaguely  used 
to  express  the  remotest  East,  cannot  invalidate  the  scheme  so  evi- 
dentlv  and  persistently  pursued  in  the  composition  of  Chap.  X. 


138 


THE  STORY  OF  CI/ALDEA. 


together,  as  it  were,  with  nothing  to  join  them, 
wherefore  this  kind  of  language  has  been  called 
agglutijiativc.  Chinese  belongs  to  the  former  class 
of  languages,  the  "  monosyllabic,"  Turkish  to  the 
latter,  the  "agglutinative."  Further,  the  Turani- 
ans were  probably  the  first  to  invent  writing,  but 
never  went  in  that  art  beyond  having  one  particu- 
lar sign  for  every  single  word — (such  is  Chinese  writ- 
ing with  its  forty  thousand  signs  or  thereabouts,  as 
many  as  words  in  the  language) — or  at  most  a 
sign  for  every  syllable.  They  had  beautiful  be- 
ginnings of  poetry,  but  in  that  also  never  went 
beyond  beginnings.  They  were  also  probably  the 
first  who  built  cities,  but  were  wanting  in  the  qual- 
ities necessary  to  organize  a  society,  establish  a 
state  on  solid  and  lasting  foundations.  At  one 
time  they  covered  the  whole  of  Western  Asia,  dwelt 
there  for  ages  before  any  other  race  occupied  it, — 
fifteen  hundred  years,  according  to  a  very  trust- 
worthy tradition, — and  were  called  by  the  ancients 
"  the  oldest  of  men  ; "  but  they  vanish  and  are  not 
heard  of  any  more  the  moment  that  white  invaders 
come  into  the  land ;  these  drive  the  Turanians  be- 
fore them,  or  bring  them  into  complete  subjection, 
or  mix  with  them,  but,  by  force  of  their  own 
superiorly  gifted  nature,  retain  the  dominant  posi- 
tion, so  that  the  others  lose  all  separate  existence. 
Thus  it  was  everywhere.  For  wherever  tribes  of 
the  three  Biblical  races  came,  they  mostly  found 
Turanian  populations  who  had  preceded  them. 
There  are  now  a  great  number  of  Turanian  tribes, 
more    or    less    numerous — Kirghizes,  Bashkirs,  Os- 


THE  GREAT  RACES.  I  39 

tiaks,  Tunguzcs,  etc.,  etc.— scattered  over  the  vast 
expanse  of  Siberia  and  Eastern  Russia,  where   they 
roam  at  will  with  their  flocks  and   herds  of  horses, 
occasionally  settling  down,— fragmentary  remnants 
of  a  race  which,  to  this   latest   time,  has  preserved 
its    original   peculiarities  and  imperfections,  whose 
day  is  done,  which  has  long  ceased  to  improve,  un- 
less it  assimilates  with  the  higher  white   race  and 
adopts  their  culture,  when  all  that  it  lacked  is  sup- 
plied by  the  nobler  element  which  mixes  with  it,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  Hungarians,  one  of  the  most  high- 
spirited  and  talented  nations  of  Europe,  originally 
of   Turanian    stock.     The  same  may  be  said,  in   a 
lesser  degree,  of  the  Finns — the  native  inhabitants 
of  the  Russian  principality  of  Finland. 

12.  All  this  by  no  means  goes  to  show  that  the 
Yellow  Race  has  ever  been  devoid  of  fine  faculties 
and    original   genius.     Quite   the    contrary;   for,  if 
white  races  everywhere  stepped    in,  took  the  work 
of  civilization  out  of  their  hands  and  carried   it   on 
to  a  perfection   of  which  they  were  incapable,  still 
they,  the   Turanians,   had    everywhere    begun   that 
work,  it  was  their  inventions  which  the  others  took 
up  and  improved  :   and  we  must   remember  that   it 
is  very  much    easier   to   improve    than    to    invent.  ~l 
Only  there  is  that  strange  limitation  to  their  power 
of  progress  and  that  want  ^f   natural    refinement, 
which  are  as  a   wall    that    encloses    them   around. 
Even  the  Chinese,  who,  at  first  sight,  are  a  brilliant 
exception,  are  not  so  on  a  closer  inspection.     True, 
they  have   founded  and   organized   a  great  empire 
which  still   endures ;    they  have    a    vast   literature, 


1 40  ^^^^  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

they  have  made  most  important  inventions — print- 
ing, manufacturing  paper  out  of  rags,  the  use  of 
the  compass,  gunpowder — centuries  before  PLuro- 
pean  nations  made  them  in  their  turn.  Vet  tlie 
latter  do  all  those  things  far  better;  they  have  im- 
proved these,  to  them,  new  inventions  more  in  a 
couple  of  hundred  years  than  the  Chinese  in  a 
thousand.  In  fact  it  is  a  good  many  centuries  since 
the  Chinese  have  ceased  to  improve  anything  at  all. 
Their  language  and  writing  are  childishly  imperfect, 
though  the  oldest  in  existence.  In  government, 
in  the  forms  of  social  life,  in  their  ideas  generally, 
they  follow  rules  laid  down  for  them  three  thou- 
sand years  ago  or  more  and  from  which  to  swerve 
a  hair's  breadth  were  blasphemy.  As  they  have 
always  stubbornly  resisted  foreign  influences,  and 
gone  the  length  of  trying  actually  to  erect  material 
walls  between  themselves  and  the  rest  of  the  world, 
their  empire  is  a  perfectly  fair  specimen  of  what 
the  Yellow  Race  can  do,  if  left  entirely  to  itself, 
and  quite  as  much  of  what  it  z?a\not  do,  and  now 
they  have  for  centuries  presented  that  unique  phe- 
nomenon— a  great  nation  at  a  standstill. 

13.  All  this  obviously  leads  us  to  a  very  interest- 
ing and  suggestive  question  :  what  is  this  great  race 
which  we  find  everywhere  at  the  very  roots  of  his- 
tory, so  that  not  onl>%ancient  tradition  calls  them 
"  the  oldest  of  men,"  but  modern  science  more  and 
more  inclines  to  the  same  opinion?  Whence  came 
it  ?  How  is  it  not  included  in  the  great  family  of 
nations,  of  which  Chap.  X.  of  Genesis  gives  so  clear 
and    comprehensive    a   scheme  ?     Parallel    to    this 


THE  GREAT  RACES.  I^j 

question  arises  another:  what  became  of  Cain's 
posterity?  What,  above  all,  of  the  descendants  of 
those  three  sons  of  Lamech,  whom  the  writer  of 
Genesis  clearly  places  before  us  as  heads  of  nations 
and  thinks  of  sufficient  importance  to  specify  what 
their  occupations  were?  (See  Genesis  iv.  19-22.) 
Why  do  we  never  hear  any  more  of  this  entire  half 
of  humanity,  severed  in  the  very  beginning  from 
the  other  half — the  lineage  of  the  accursed  son 
from  that  of  the  blest  and  favored  son  ?  And  may 
not  the  answer  to  this  series  of  questions  be  the 
answer  to  the  first  series  also  ? 

14.  With  regard  to  the  second  series  this  answer 
is  plain  and  decisive.  The  descendants  of  Cain  were 
necessarily  out  of  the  pale  of  the  Hebrew  world. 
The  curse  of  God,  in  consequence  of  which  their 
forefather  is  said  to  have  gone  "  out  of  the  presence 
of  the  Lord,"  at  once  and  forever  separated  them 
from  the  posterity  of  the  pious  son,  from  those  who 
"walked  with  God."  The  writer  of  Genesis  tells 
us  that  they  lived  in  the  "  Land  of  Exile  "  and 
multiplied,  then  dismisses  them.  For  what  could 
the  elect,  the  people  of  God,  or  even  those  other 
nations  who  went  astray,  who  were  repeatedly 
chastised,  but  whose  family  bond  with  the  righteous 
race  was  never  entirely  severed — what  could  they 
have  in  common  with  the  banished,  the  castaway, 
the  irretrievably  accursed  ?  These  did  not  count, 
they  were  not  of  humanity.  What  more  probable, 
therefore,  than  that,  being  excluded  from  all  the 
other  narratives,  they  should  not  be  included  in 
that  of  the  Flood?     ^\nd  in   that  case,  who  should 


142  "^^^  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

they  be  but  that  most  ancient  race,  set  apart  by  its 
color  and  several  striking  peculiarities,  which  every- 
where preceded  their  white  brethren,  but  were 
invariably  supplanted  by  them  and  not  destined  to 
supremacy  on  the  earth  ?  This  supposition  has 
been  hazarded  by  men  of  great  genius,  and  if  bold, 
still  has  much  to  support  it ;  if  confirmed  it  would 
solve  many  puzzles,  throw  strong  and  unexpected 
light  on  many  obscure  points.  The  very  antiq- 
uity of  the  Yellow  Race  tallies  admirably  with  the 
Biblical  narrative,  for  of  the  two  Biblical  brothers 
Cain  was  the  eldest.  And  the  doom  laid  on  the 
race,  "  a  fugitive  and  a  vagabond  shalt  thou  be  on 
the  earth,"  has  not  been  revoked  through  all  ages. 
Wherever  pure  Turanians  are — they  are  nomads. 
And  when,  fifteen  hundred  years  ago  and  later, 
countless  swarms  of  barbarous  people  flooded 
Europe,  coming  from  the  east,  and  swept  all  before 
them,  the  Turanian  hordes  could  be  known  chiefly 
by  this,  that  they  destroyed,  burned,  laid  waste — 
and  passed,  vanished :  whereas  the  others,  after 
treating  a  country  quite  as  salragely,  usually  settled 
in  it  and  founded  states,  most  of  which  exist  even 
now — for,  French,  German,  English,  Russian,  we 
are  all  descended  from  some  of  those  barbarous 
invaders.  And  this  also  would  fully  explain  how 
it  came  to  pass  that,  although  the  Hebrews  and 
their  forefathers — let  us  say  the  Semites  generally 
— everywhere  found  Turanians  on  their  way,  nay, 
dwelt  in  the  same  lands  with  them,  the  sacred  his- 
torian ignores  them  completely,  as  in  Gen.  xi.  2. 


THE  GREAT  RACES. 


143 


15.  For  they  were  Turanians,  arrived  at  a,  for 
them,  really  high  state  of  culture,  who  peopled  the 
land  of  Shinar,  when  "  they  "—descendants  of  Noah, 
—journeying  in  the  East,  found  that  plain  where 
they  dwelt  for  many  years. 


III. 


TURANIAN   CHALDEA. — SHUMIR    AND   ACCAD. 
BEGINNINGS  OF  RELIGION. 


-THE 


I.  It  is  not  Berosus  alone  who  speaks  of  the 
"  multitudes  of  men  of  foreign  race"  who  colonized 
Chaldca  "  in  the  beginning."  It  was  a  universally 
admitted  fact  throughout  antiquity  that  the  popula- 
tion of  the  country  had  always  been  a  mixed  one,  but 
a  fact  known  vaguely,  without  particulars.  On  this 
subject,  as  on  so  many  others,  the  discoveries  made 
in  the  royal  library  of  Nineveh  shed  an  unexpected 
and  most  welcome  light.  The  very  first,  so  to  speak 
preliminary,  study  of  the  tablets  showed  that  there 
were  amongst  them  documents  in  two  entirely  dif- 
ferent languages,  of  which  one  evidently  was  that 
of  an  older  population  of  Chaldea.  The  other  and 
later  language,  usually  called  Assyrian,  because  it 
was  spoken  also  by  the  Assyrians,  being  very  like 
Hebrew,  an  understanding  of  it  was  arrived  at  with 
comparative  ease.  As  to  the  older  language  there 
was  absolutely  no  clue.  The  only  conjecture  which 
could  be  made  with  any  certainty  was.  that  it  must 
have  been  spoken  by  a  double  people,  called  the 
people  of  Shumir  and  Accad,  because  later  kings  of 


TURANfAN  CHALDEA. 


145 


Babylon,  in  their  inscriptions,  always  gave  them- 
selves the  title  of  "  Kings  of  Shumir  and  Accad,"  a 
title  which  the  Assyrian  sovereigns,  who  at  times 
conquered  Chaldea,  did  not  fail  to  take  also.  But 
who  and  what  were  these  people  might  never  have 
been  cleared  up,  but  for  the  most  fortunate  discov- 
ery of  dictionaries  and  grammars,  which,  the  texts 
being  supplied  with  Assyrian  translations,  served 
our  modern  scholars,  just  as  the}'  did  Assyrian  stu- 
dents 3000  years  ago.,  to  decipher  and  learn  to 
understand  the  oldest  language  of  Chaldea.  Of 
course,  it  was  a  colossal  piece  of  work,  beset  with 
dif^culties  which  it  required  an  almost  fierce  deter- 
mination and  superhuman  patience  to  master.  But 
every  step  made  was  so  amply  repaid  by  the  results 
obtained,  that  the  zeal  of  the  laborers  was  never 
suffered  to  flag,  and  the  effected  reconstruction, 
though  far  from  complete  even  now,  already  enables 
us  to  conjure  a  very  suggestive  and  life-like  picture 
of  those  first  settlers  of  the  Mesopotamian  Low- 
lands, their  character,  religion  and  pursuits. 

2.  The  language  thus  strangely  brought  to  light 
was  very  soon  perceived  to  be  distinctly  of  that 
peculiar  and  primitive  type — partly  monosyllables, 
partly  words  rudely  pieced  together, — which  has 
been  described  in  a  preceding  chapter  as  character- 
istic of  the  Turanian  race,  and  which  is  known  in  sci- 
ence by  the  general  name  of  agglutinative,  i.e., 
"glued  or  stuck  together,"  without  change  in  the 
words,  either  by  declension  or  conjugation.  The 
people  of  Shumir  and  Accad,  therefore,  were  one  and 
the  same  Turanian  nation,  the  difference  in  the  name 


146  THE   STORY   OF  C//ALDEA. 

being  merely  a  geographical  one.  SllUMIR  is  South- 
ern or  Lower  Chaldca,  the  country  towards  and 
around  the  Persian  Gulf, — that  very  land  of  Shinar 
which  is  mentioned  in  Genesis  xi.  2.  Indeed  "  Shi- 
nar" is  only  the  way  in  which  the  Hebrews  pro- 
nounced and  spelt  the  ancient  name  of  Lower  Chal- 
dea.  ACCAD  is  Northern  or  Upper  Chaldea.  The 
most  correct  way,  and  the  safest  from  all  misunder- 
standing, is  to  name  the  people  the  Shumiro-Accads 
and  their  language,  the  Shumiro-Accadian  ;  but 
for  brevity's  sake,  the  first  name  is  frequently 
dropped,  and  many  say  simply  "  the  Accads  "  and 
"the  Accadian  language."  It  is  clear,  however, 
that  the  royal  title  must  needs  unite  both  names, 
which  together  represented  the  entire  country  of 
Chaldca.  Of  late  it  has  been  discovered  that  the 
Shumiro-Accads  spoke  two  slightly  differing  dia- 
lects of  the  same  language,  that  of  Shumir  being 
most  probably  the  older  of  the  two,  as  culture 
and  conquest  seem  to  have  been  carried  steadily 
northward  from  the  Gulf. 

3.  That  the  Accads  themselves  came  from  some- 
where else,  is  plain  from  several  circumstances, 
although  there  is  not  the  faintest  symptom  or  trace 
of  any  people  whom  they  may  have  found  in  the 
country.  They  brought  into  it  the  very  first  and 
most  essential  rudiments  of  civilization,  the  art  of 
writing,  and  that  of  working  metals ;  it  was  prob- 
ably also  they  who  began  to  dig  those  canals  with- 
out which  the  land,  notwithstanding  its  fabulous 
fertility,  must  always  be  a  marshy  waste,  and  who 
began  to  make  bricks  and  construct  buildincfs  out  of 


TURANIAN  CHALDEA.  147 

them.  There  is  ground  to  conclude  that  they  came 
down  from  mountains  in  the  fact  that  the  name 
"  Accad  "  means  "Mountains"  or  "Highlands,"  a 
name  which  they  could  not  possibly  have  taken  in 
the  dead  flats  of  Lower  Chaldea,  but  must  have 
retained  as  a  relic  of  an  older  home.  It  is  quite 
possible  that  this  home  may  have  been  in  the 
neighboring  wild  and  mountainous  land  of  Shushan 
(Susiana  on  the  maps),  whose  first  known  popu- 
lation was  also  Turanian.  These  guesses  take  us 
into  a  past,  where  not  a  speck  of  positive  fact  can 
be  discerned.  Yet  even  that  must  have  been  only 
a  station  in  this  race's  migration  from  a  far  more 
northern  centre.  Their  written  language,  even 
after  they  had  lived  for  centuries  in  an  almost 
tropical  country,  where  palms  grew  in  vast  groves, 
almost  forests,  and  lions  were  common  game,  as 
plentiful  as  tigers  in  the  jungles  of  Bengal,  con- 
tained no  sign  to  designate  either  the  one  or  the 
other,  while  it  was  well  stocked  with  the  signs  of 
metals, — of  wdiich  there  is  no  vestige,  of  course, 
in  Chaldea, — and  all  that  belongs  to  the  work- 
ing thereof.  As  the  ALTAI  range,  the  great  Sibe- 
rian chain,  has  always  been  famous  for  its  rich 
mines  of  every  possible  metal  ore,  and  as  the  val- 
leys of  the  Altai  are  known  to  be  the  nests  from 
which  innumerable  Turanian  tribes  scattered  to  the 
north  and  south,  and  in  which  many  dwell  to  this 
day  after  their  own  nomadic  fashion,  there  is  no  ex- 
travagance in  supposing  that  there  may  have  been 
our  Accads'  original  point  of  departure.  Indeed  the 
Altai  is  so  indissolubly  connected  with  the  origin  of 


148 


THE  STORY  OF  CllAF.DEA. 


most  Turanian  nations,  that  niAny  scientists  prefer 
to  call  the  entire  Yellow  Race,  with  all  its  gradations 
of  color,  "  the  Altaic."  Their  own  traditions  point 
the  same  way.  Several  of  them  have  a  pretty 
legend  of  a  sort  of  paradise,  a  secluded  vallc}-  some- 
where in  the  Altai,  pleasant  and  watered  b\'  man}- 
streams,  where  their  forefathers  either  dwelt  in  the 
first  place  or  whither  they  were  providentially  con- 
ducted to  be  saved  from  a  general  massacre.  The 
valley  was  entirely  enclosed  with  high  rocks,  steep 
and  pathless,  so  that  when,  after  several  hundred 
years,  it  could  no  longer  hold  the  number  of  its  in- 
habitants, these  began  to  search  for  an  issue  and 
found  none.  Then  one  among  them,  who  was  a 
smith,  discovered  that  the  rocks  were  almost  en- 
tirely of  iron.  By  his  advice,  a  huge  fire  was  made 
and  a  great  many  mighty  bellows  were  brought  into 
play,  by  which  means  a  path  was  melted  through 
the  rocks.  A  tradition,  by  the  by,  which,  while 
confirming  the  remark  that  the  invention  of  metal- 
lurgy belongs  originally  to  the  Yellow  Race  in  its 
earliest  stages  of  development,  is  strangely  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  name  of  the  Biblical  Tubalcain, 
"  the  forger  of  every  cutting  instrument  of  brass 
and  iron."  That  the  Accads  were  possessed  of  this 
distinctive  accomplishment  of  their  race  is  moreover 
made  very  probable  by  the  various  articles  and  or- 
naments in  gold,  brass  and  iron  which  are  continu- 
ally found  in  the  very  oldest  tombs. 

4.  But  infinitely  the  most  precious  acquisition  se- 
cured to  us  by  the  unexpected  revelation  of  this 
stage  of  remotest  antiquity  is  a  wonderfully  exten- 


TUKANIA.y  C HA  IDEA. 


149 


sive  collection  of  prayers,  invocations  and  other 
sacred  texts,  from  which  we  can  reconstruct,  with 
much  probability,  the  most  primitive  religion  in  the 
world — for  such  undoubtedly  was  that  of  the 
Accads.  As  a  clear  and  authentic  insight  into  the 
first  manifestation  of  the  religious  instinct  in  man 
was  just  what  was  wanting  until  now,  in  order  to 
enable  us  to  follow  its  development  from  the  first, 
crudest  attempts  at  expression  to  the  highest  aspi- 
rations and  noblest  forms  of  worship,  the  value  of 
this  discovery  can  never  be  overrated.  It  intro- 
duces us  moreover  into  so  strange  and  fantastical  a 
world  as  not  the  most  imaginative  of  fictions  can 
surpass. 

5.  The  instinct  of  religion — "  religiosity,"  as  it  has 
been  called — is  inborn  to  man  ;  like  the  faculty  of 
speech,  it  belongs  to  man,  and  to  man  only,  of  all 
living  beings.  So  much  so,  that  modern  science  is 
coming  to  acknowledge  these  two  faculties  as  the 
distinctive  characteristics  which  mark  man  as  a 
being  apart  from  and  above  the  rest  of  creation. 
Whereas  the  division  of  all  that  exists  upon  the 
earth  has  of  old  been  into  three  great  classes  or 
realms — the  "mineral  realm,"  the  "vegetable 
realm  "  and  the  "  animal  realm,"  in  which  latter 
man  was  included — it  is  now  proposed  to  erect  the 
human  race  with  all  its  varieties  into  a  separate 
"  realm,"  for  this  very  reason  :  that  man  has  all  that 
animals  have,  and  two  things  more  which  they  have 
not — speech  and  religiosity,  which  assume  a  faculty 
of  abstract  thinking,  observing  and  drawing  general 
conclusions,  solely  and  distinctively  human.     Now 


I  50  THE  STORY  OF  CJIALDEA. 

the  very  first  observations  of  man  in  the  most  prim- 
itive stage  of  his  existence  must  necessarily  have 
awakened  in  him  a  twofold  consciousness — that  of 
power  and  that  of  helplessness.  He  could  do  many 
things.  Small  in  size,  weak  in  strength,  destitute 
of  natural  clothing  and  weapons,  acutely  sensitive 
to  pain  and  atmospheric  changes  as  all  higher 
natures  arc,  he  could  kill  and  tame  the  huge  and 
powerful  animals  which  had  the  advantage  of  him 
in  all  these  things,  whose  numbers  and  fierceness 
threatened  him  at  every  turn  with  destruction,  from 
which  his  only  escape  would  seem  to  have  been  con- 
stant cowering  and  hiding.  He  could  compel  the 
earth  to  bear  for  him  choicer  food  than  for  the 
other  beings  who  lived  on  her  gifts.  He  could  com- 
mand the  service  of  fire,  the  dread  visitor  from 
heaven.  Stepping  victoriously  from  one  achieve- 
ment to  another,  ever  widening  his  sphere  of 
action,  of  invention,  man  could  not  but  be  filled 
with  legitimate  pride.  But  on  the  other  hand, 
he  saw  himself  surrounded  with  things  which  he 
could  neither  account  for  nor  subdue,  which  had 
the  greatest  influence  on  his  well-being,  either  favor- 
able or  hostile,  but  which  were  utterly  beyond  his 
comprehension  or  control.  The  same  sun  which 
ripened  his  crop  sometimes  scorched  it ;  the  rain 
which  cooled  and  fertilized  his  field,  sometimes 
swamped  it ;  the  hot  winds  parched  him  and  his  cat- 
tle ;  in  the  marshes  lurked  disease  and  death.  All 
these  and  many,  many  more,  were  evidently  Pow- 
ers, and  could  do  him  great  good  or  work  him 
great  harm,  while  he  was  unable  to    do  either   to 


TURANIAN  CIJALDEA-  1 5  i 

them.  These  things  existed,  he  felt  their  action 
every  day  of  his  life,  consequently  they  were  to  him 
living  Beings,  alive  in  the  same  way  that  he  was, 
possessed  of  will,  for  good  or  for  evil.  In  short,  to 
primitive  man  everything  in  nature  was  alive  with 
an  individual  life,  as  it  is  to  the  very  young  child, 
who  would  not  beat  the  chair  against  which  he  has 
knocked  himself,  and  then  kiss  it  to  make  friends, 
did  he  not  think  that  it  is  a  living  and  feeling  being 
like  himself.  The  feeling  of  dependence  and  abso- 
lute helplessness  thus  created  must  have  more  than 
balanced  that  of  pride  and  self-reliance.  Man  felt 
himself  placed  in  a  world  where  he  was  suffered  to 
live  and  have  his  share  of  what  good  things  he  could 
get,  but  which  was  not  ruled  by  him, — in  a  spirit- 
world.  Spirits  around  him,  above  him,  below  him, 
— what  could  he  do  but  humble  himself,  confess  his 
dependence,  and  pray  to  be  spared  ?  For  surely, 
if  those  spirits  existed  and  took  enough  interest  in 
him  to  do  him  good  or  evil,  they  could  hear  him 
and  might  be  moved  by  supplication.  To  establish 
a  distinction  between  such  spirits  which  did  only 
harm,  were  evil  in  themselves,  and  those  whose 
action  was  generally  beneficial  and  only  on  rare 
occasions  destructive,  was  the  next  natural  step, 
which  led  as  naturally  to  a  perception  of  divine  dis- 
pleasure as  the  cause  of  such  terrible  manifestations 
and  a  seeking  of  means  to  avert  or  propitiate  it. 
While  fear  and  loathing  were  the  portion  of  the 
former  spirits,  the  essentially  evil  ones,  love  and 
gratitude,  were  the  predominant  feelings  inspired  by 
the  latter, — feelings  which,  together  with  the  ever 


152 


THE  STORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 


present  consciousness  of  dependence,  are  the  very 
essence  of  religion,  just  as  praise  and  worship  are 
the  attempts  to  express  them  in  a  tangible  form, 

6.  It  is  this  most  primitive,  material  and  unques- 
tioning stage  in  the  growth  of  religious  feeling, 
which  a  large  portion  of  the  Shumiro-Accadian  doc- 
uments from  the  Royal  Library  at  Nineveh  brings 
before  us  with  a  force  and  completeness  which, 
however  much  room  there  may  still  be  for  uncer- 
tainty in  details,  on  the  whole  really  amounts  to 
more  than  conjecture.  Much  will,  doubtless,  be  dis- 
covered yet,  much  will  be  done,  but  it  will  only  serve 
to  fill  in  a  sketch,  of  which  the  outlines  are  already 
now  tolerably  fixed  and  authentic.  The  materials  for 
this  most  important  reconstruction  are  almost  en- 
tirely contained  in  a  vast  collection  of  two  hundred 
tablets,  forming  one  consecutive  work  in  three 
books,  over  fifty  of  which  have  been  sifted  out  of 
the  heap  of  rubbish  at  the  British  Museum  and  first 
deciphered  by  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  one  of  the 
greatest,  as  he  was  the  first  discoverer  in  this  field, 
and  George  Smith,  whose  achievements  and  too 
early  death  have  been  mentioned  in  a  former  chap- 
ter. Of  the  three  books  into  which  the  collection 
is  divided,  one  treats  "of  evil  spirits,"  another  of 
diseases,  and  the  third  contains  hymns  and  prayers 
— the  latter  collection  showing  signs  of  a  later  and 
higher  development.  Out  of  these  materials  the 
lately  deceased  French  scholar,  Mr.  Fran(;ois  Len- 
ormant,  whose  name  has  for  the  last  fifteen  years  or 
so  of  his  life  stood  in  the  very  front  of  this  branch 
of  Oriental  research,  has  been  the  first  to  reconstruct 


TURAXIAX  CHALDEA.  j  r  ■, 

an  entire  picture  in  a  book  not  very  voluminous  in- 
deed, but  which  must  always  remain  a  corner-stone 
in  the  history  of  human  culture.  This  book  shall 
be  our  guide  in  the  strange  world  we  now  enter.* 

7.  To  the  people  of  Shumir  and  Accad,  then,  the 
universe  was  peopled  with  Spirits,  whom  they  dis- 
tributed according  to  its  different  spheres  and  re- 
gions. For  they  had  formed  a  very  elaborate  and 
clever,  if  peculiar  idea  of  what  they  supposed  the 
world  to  be  like.  According  to  the  ingenious  ex- 
pression of  a  Greek  writer  of  the  ist  century  A.D. 
they  imagined  it  to  have  the  shape  of  an  inverted 
round  boat  or  bowl,  the  thickness  of  which  would 
represent  the  mixture  of  land  and  water  {ki-d) 
which  we  call  the  crust  of  the  earth,  while  the  hol- 
low beneath  this  inhabitable  crust  was  fancied  as  a 
bottomless  pit  or  abyss  {gc),  in  which  dwelt  many 
powers.  Above  the  convex  surface  of  the  earth 
{ki-ci)  spread  the  sky  {and),  itself  divided  into  two 
regions  : — the  highest  heaven  or  firmament,  which^ 
with  the  fixed  stars  immovably  attached  to  it,  re- 
volved, as  round  an  axis  or  pivot,  around  an  im- 
mensely high  mountain,  which  joined  it  to  the 
earth  as  a  pillar,  and  was  situated  somewhere  in  the 
far  North-East — some  say  North — and  the  lower 
heaven,  where  the  planets — a  sort  of  resplendent 
animals,  seven  in  number,  of  beneficent  nature — 
wandered  forever  on  their  appointed  path.  To 
these  were  opposed  seven  evil  demons,  sometimes 


*  "  La  Magie  et  la  Divination  chez  les  Chaldeens,"  1874-5.     Ger- 
man translation  of  it,  1878. 


154 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


called  "  the  Seven  Fiery  Phantoms."  But  above 
all  these,  hi<^her  in  rank  and  greater  in  power,  is 
the  Spirit  {Zi)  of  heaven  (ana),  Zl-ANA,  or,  as 
often,  simply  Ana — ■''  Heaven."  Between  the  lower 
heaven  and  the  surface  of  the  earth  is  the  atmos- 
pheric region,  the  realm  of  I.M  or  Mkr.meR,  the 
Wind,  where  he  drives  the  clouds,  rouses  the  storms, 
and  whence  he  pours  down  the  rain,  which  is  stored 
in  the  great  reservoir  of  Ana,  in  the  heavenly 
Ocean.  As  to  the  earthly  Ocean,  it  is  fancied  as  a 
broad  river,  or  watery  rim,  flowing  all  round  the 
edge  of  the  imaginary  inverted  bowl ;  in  its  waters 
dwells  Ea  (whose  name  means  "the  House  of  Wa- 
ters "),  the  great  Spirit  of  the  Earth  and  Waters  {Zi- 
ki-a),  either  in  the  form  of  a  fish,  whence  he  is  fre- 
quently called  "  Ea  the  fish,"  or  "the  Exalted  Fish," 
or  on  a  magnificent  ship,  with  which  he  travels  round 
the  earth,  guarding  and  protecting  it.  The  minor 
spirits  of  earth  {Amnuia-ki)  are  not  much  spoken 
of  except  in  a  body,  as  a  sort  of  host  or  legion.  All 
the  more  terrible  are  the  seven  spirits  of  the  abyss, 
the  Maski.m,  of  whom  it  is  said  that,  although  their 
seat  is  in  the  depths  of  the  earth,  yet  their  voice 
resounds  on  the  heights  also  :  they  reside  at  will  in 
the  immensity  of  space,  "  not  enjoying  a  good  name 
either  in  heaven  or  on  earth."  Their  greatest  de- 
light is  to  subvert  the  orderly  course  of  nature,  to 
cause  earthquakes,  inundations,  ravaging  tempests. 
Although  the  Abyss  is  their  birth-place  and  proper 
sphere,  they  are  not  submissive  to  its  lord  and  ruler 
MUL-GE  ("  Lord  of  the  Abyss").  In  that  they  are 
like  their  brethren  of  the  lower  heaven  who  do  not 


TURAXIAN  CIJALDEA. 


155 


acknowledge  Ana's  supremacy,  in  fact  are  called 
"spirits  of  rebellion,"  because,  being  originally 
Ana's  messengers,  they  once  "  secretly  plotted  a 
wicked  deed,"  rose  against  the  heavenly  powers, 
obscured  the  Moon,  and  all  but  hurled  him  from  his 
seat.  But  the  Maskim  are  ever,  more  feared  and 
hated,  as  appears  from  the  following  description, 
which  has  become  celebrated  for  its  real  poetical 
force : 

8.  "  They  are  seven  !  they  are  seven ! — Seven 
they  are  in  the  depths  of  Ocean, — seven  they  are, 
disturbers  of  the  face  of  Heaven. — They  arise  from 
the  depths  of  Ocean,  from  hidden  lurking-places. — 
They  spread  like  snares. — Male  they  are  not,  female 
they  are  not. — Wives  they  have  not,  children  are 
not  born  to  them. — Order  they  know  not,  nor  benefi- 
cence ; — prayers  and  supplication  they  hear  not. — 
Vermin  grown  in  the  bowels  of  the  mountains — 
foes  of  Ea — they  are  the  throne-bearers  of  the  gods 
— they  sit  in  the  roads  and  make  them  unsafe. — 
The  fiends  !  the  fiends  ! — They  are  seven,  they  are 
seven,  seven  they  are  ! 

"  Spirit  of  Heaven  {Zi-ana,  And),  be  they  conjured ! 
"  Spirit  of  Earth  {Zi-ki-a,  Ea),  be  they  conjured  !  " 

9.  Besides  these  regular  sets  of  evil  spirits  in 
sevens — seven  being  a  mysterious  and  consecrated 
number — there  are  the  hosts  untold  of  demons  which 
assail  man  in  every  possible  form,  which  are  always 
on  the  watch  to  do  him  harm,  not  only  bodily,  but 
moral  in  the  way  of  civil  broils  and  family  dissen- 
sions; confusion  is  their  work;  it  is  they  who 
"  steal  the  child  from  the  father's  knee,"  who  "  drive 


,  5  6  ^"/^^'  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

the  son  from  his  father's  house,"  who  withhold  from 
the  wife  the  blessing  of  children  ;  they  have  stolen 
days  from  heaven,  which  they  have  made  evil  days, 
that  bring  nothing  but  ill-luck  and  misfortune, — 
and  nothing  can  keep  them  out  :  "  They  fall  as  rain 
from  the  sky,  they  spring  from  the  earth, — they 
steal  from  house  to  house, — doors  do  not  stop  them, 
— bolts  do  not  shut  them  out, — they  creep  in  at  the 
doors  like  serpents, — they  blow  in  at  the  roof  like 
winds."  Various  are  their  haunts:  the  tops  of 
mountains,  the  pestilential  marshes  by  the  sea,  but 
especially  the  desert.  Sickness  and  disease  are 
among  the  most  dreaded  of  this  terrible  band,  and 
first  among  these  Namtar,  the  demon  of  Pestilence, 
Idpa  (Fever),  and  a  certain  mysterious  disease  of 
the  head,  which  must  be  insanity,  of  which  it  is  said 
that  it  oppresses  the  head  and  holds  it  tight  like  a 
tiara  (a  heavy  headdress)  or  "  like  a  dark  prison," 
and  makes  it  confused,  that  "  it  is  like  a  violent 
tempest ;  no  one  knows  whence  it  comes,  nor  what 
is  its  object." 

10.  All  these  evil  beings  are  very  properly  classed 
together  under  the  general  name  of  "  creations  of 
the  Abyss,"  births  of  the  nether  world,  the  world  of 
the  dead.  For  the  unseen  world  below  the  hab- 
itable earth  was  naturally  conceived  as  the  dwelling 
place  of  the  departed  spirits  after  death.  It  is  very 
remarkable  as  characteristic  of  the  low  standard 
of  moral  conception  which  the  Shumiro-Accads 
had  attained  at  this  stage  of  their  development, 
that,  although  they  never  admitted  that  those 
who  died   ceased  to  exist  altogether,  there  is  very 


TURANIAN  CHALDEA. 


157 


little  to  show  that  they  imagined  an}'  happ)'  state 
for  them  after  death,  not  even  as  a  reward  for  a 
righteous  life,  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  looked  to 
a  future  state  for  punishment  of  wrongs  committed 
in  this  world,  but  promiscuously  consigned  their 
dead  to  the  Arali,  a  most  dismal  region  which  is 
called  the  "  support  of  chaos,"  or,  in  phrase  no  less 
vague  and  full  of  mysterious  awe,  "the  Great 
Land"  {Ki-gal),  "the  Great  City"  {Urit-gal),  "the 
spacious  dwelling,"  "  where  they  wander  in  the 
dark," — a  region  ruled  by  a  female  divinity  called 
by  different  names,  but  most  frequently  "  Lady  of 
the  Great  Land "  {Nin-ki-gal),  or  "  Lady  of  the 
Abyss "  {Niii-gc),  who  may  the  rather  be  under- 
stood as  Death  personified,  that  Namtar  (Pestilence) 
is  her  chief  minister.  The  Shumiro-Accads  seem 
to  have  dimly  fancied  that  association  with  so  many 
evil  beings  whose  proper  home  the  Arali  was,  must 
convert  even  the  human  spirits  into  beings  almost 
as  noxious,  for  one  or  two  passages  appear  to  imply 
that  they  were  afraid  of  ghosts,  at  least  on  one 
occasion  it  is  threatened  to  send  the  dead  back  into 
the  upper  world,  as  the  direst  calamity  that  can  be 
inflicted. 

II.  As  if  all  these  terrors  were  not  sufficient  to 
make  life  a  burden,  the  Shumiro-Accads  believed  in 
sorcerers,  wicked  men  who  knew  how  to  compel  the 
powers  of  evil  to  do  their  bidding  and  thus  could 
inflict  death,  sickness  or  disasters  at  their  pleasure. 
This  could  be  done  in  many  ways — by  a  look,  by 
uttering  certain  words,  by  drinks  made  of  herbs 
prepared  under  certain  conditions  and  ceremonies. 


T58 


THE  srORV  OF  CHALDEA. 


Nay,  the  power  of  doing  harm  sometimes  fatally 
belonged  even  to  innocent  persons,  who  inflicted  it 
unintentionally  by  their  look — for  the  effect  of 
"the  evil  eye  "  did  not  always  depend  on  a  person's 
own  will. 

12.  Existence  under  such  conditions  must  have 
been  as  unendurable  as  that  of  poor  children  who 
have  been  terrified  by  silly  nurses  into  a  belief  in 
ogres  and  a  fear  of  dark  rooms,  had  there  not  existed 
real  or  imaginary  defences  against  this  array  of  hor- 
rible beings  always  ready  to  fall  on  unfortunate  hu- 
manity in  all  sorts  of  inexplicable  ways  and  for  no 
other  reason  but  their  own  detestable  delight  in  do- 
ing evil.  These  defences  could  not  consist  in  rational 
measures  dictated  by  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  of 
physical  nature,  since  they  had  no  notion  of  such 
laws ;  nor  in  prayers  and  propitiatory  offerings, 
since  one  of  the  demons'  most  execrable  qualities 
was,  as  we  have  seen,  that  they  "knew  not  benefi- 
cence "  and  "heard  not  prayer  and  supplication." 
Then,  if  they  cannot  be  coaxed,  they  must  be  com- 
pelled. This  seems  a  very  presumptuous  assump- 
tion, but  it  is  strictly  in  accordance  to  human  in- 
stinct. It  has  been  very  truly  said  *  that  "  man  was 
so  conscious  of  being  called  to  exercise  empire  over 
the  powers  of  nature,  that,  the  moment  he  entered 
into  any  relations  with  them,  it  was  to  try  and  sub- 
ject them  to  his  will.  Only  instead  of  studying  the 
phenomena,  in  order  to  grasp  their  laws  and  apply 


*  Alfred  Maury,  "La  Magie  et  I'Astrologie  dans  I'Antiquite  et  au 
Moyen-age."    Introduction,  p.  i. 


TURAXIAX  CIIALDEA.  \  59 

them  to  his  needs,  he  fancied  he  could,  by  means 
of  peculiar  practices  and  consecrated  forms,  compel 
the  physical  agents  of  nature  to  serve  his  wishes 
and  purposes.  .  .  .  This  pretension  had  its  root  in 
the  notion  which  antiquity  had  formed  of  the  nat- 
ural phenomena.  It  did  not  see  in  them  the  conse- 
quence of  unchangeable  and  necessary  laws,  always 
active  and  always  to  be  calculated  upon,  but  fancied 
them  to  depend  on  the  arbitrary  and  varying  will 
of  the  spirits  and  deities  it  had  put  in  the  place  of 
physical  agents."  It  follows  that  in  a  religion 
which  peoples  the  universe  with  spirits  of  which  the 
greater  part  are  evil,  magic — i.e.,  conjuring  with 
words  and  rites,  incantations,  spells — must  take  the 
place  of  worship,  and  the  ministers  of  such  a  relig- 
ion are  not  priests,  but  conjurers  and  enchanters. 
This  is  exactly  the  state  of  things  revealed  by  the 
great  collection  of  texts  discovered  by  Sir  H.  Raw- 
linson  and  G.  Smith.  They  contain  forms  for  con- 
juring all  the  different  kinds  of  demons,  even  to  evil 
dreams  and  nightmares,  the  object  of  most  such 
invocations  being  to  drive  them  away  from  the 
habitations  of  men  and  back  where  they  properly 
belong  to — the  depth  of  the  desert,  the  inaccessible 
mountain  tops,  and  all  remote,  waste  and  uninhab- 
ited places  generally,  where  they  can  range  at  will, 
and  find  nobody  to  harm. 

13.  Yet  there  are  also  prayers  for  protection  and 
help  addressed  to  beings  conceived  as  essentially 
good  and  beneficent — a  step  marking  a  great  ad- 
vance in  the  moral  feeling  and  religious  conscious- 
ness of  the  people.     Such  beings — gods,   in   fact — 


l6o  THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

were,  above  all,  Ana  and  fia,  whom  we  saw  invoked 
in  the  incantation  of  the  Seven  Maskim  as  "  Spirit 
of  Heaven,"  and  "Spirit  of  Earth."  The  latter 
especially  is  appealed  to  as  ah  unfailing  refuge  to 
ill-used  and  terrified  mortals.  He  is  imagined  as 
possessed  of  all  knowledge  and  wisdom,  which  he 
uses  only  to  befriend  and  protect.  His  usual 
residence  is  the  deep, — (hence  his  name»  E-a,  "  the 
House  of  Waters  ") — but  he  sometimes  travels 
round  the  earth  in  a  magnificent  ship.  His  very 
name  is  a  terror  to  the  evil  ones.  He  knows  the 
words,  the  spells  that  will  break  their  power  and 
compel  their  obedience.  To  him,  therefore,  the 
people  looked  in  their  need  with  infinite  trust. 
Unable  to  cope  with  the  mysterious  dangers  and 
snares  which,  as  they  fancied,  beset  them  on  all 
sides,  ignorant  of  the  means  of  defeating  the  wicked 
beings  who,  they  thought,  pursued  them  with 
abominable  malice  and  gratuitous  hatred,  they 
turned  to  Ea.  He  would  know,  //r  must  be  asked, 
and  he  would  tell. 

14.  But,  as  though  bethinking  themselves  that  Ea 
was  a  being  too  mighty  and  exalted  to  be  lightly 
addressed  and  often  disturbed,  the  Shumiro-Accads 
imagined  a  beneficent  spirit,  one  of  whose  names 
was  Meri-DUG,  sometimes  called  son  of  Ea  and 
Damkina,  (a  name  of  Earth).  Meridug's  only 
ofifice  is  to  act  as  mediator  between  his  father  and 
suffering  mankind.  It  is  he  who  bears  to  Ea  the 
suppliant's  request,  exposes  his  need  sometimes 
in  very  moving  words,  and  requests  to  know  the 
remedy — if  illness  be  the  trouble — or  the  counter- 


TURANIAX  CHALDEA.  j^j 

spell,  if  the  victim  be  held  in  the  toils  of  witchcraft. 
Ea  tells  his  son,  who  is  then  supposed  to  reveal 
the  secret  to  the  chosen  instrument  of  assistance — 
of  course  the  conjuring  priest,  or  better,  soothsayer. 
As  most  incantations  are  conceived  on  this  prin- 
ciple, they  are  very  monotonous  in  form,  though 
frequently  enlivened  by  the  supposed  dialogue 
between  the  father  and  son.  Here  is  one  of  the 
more  entertaining  specimens.  It  occupies  an  entire 
tablet,  but  unfortunately  many  lines  have  been 
hopelessly  injured,  and  have  to  be  omitted.  The 
text  begins : 

"The  Disease  of  the  Head  has  issued  from  the  Abyss,  from  the 
dwelling  of  the  Lord  of  the  Abyss." 

Then  follow  the  symptoms  and  the  description 
of  the  sufferer's  inability  to  help  himself.  Then 
"  Meridug  has  lent  him  his  assistance.  He  has 
entered  the  dwelling  of  his  father  Ea,  and  has 
spoken  unto  him  : 

'"My father,  the  Disease  of  the  Head  has  issued  from  the  Abyss.' 
"A  second  time  he  has  spoken  unto  him  : 

"'What  he  must  do  against  it  the  man  knows  not.  How  shall  he 
overcome  it .'' ' 

"  Ea  has  replied  to  his  son  Meridug  : 

" '  My  son,  why  dost  thou  not  know  ?  Why  should  I  teach  thee  ? 
What  I  know,  thou  also  knowest.  But  come  hither,  my  son  Meri- 
dug. Take  a  bucket,  fill  it  with  water  from  the  river;  impart  to  this 
water  thy  exalted  magic  power,  impart  to  it  through  thy  magic  power 
the  brightness  of  purity;  sprinkle  with  it  the  man,  son  of  his  god, 
....  wrap  up  his  head,  ....  that  insanity  be  dispelled,  that  the 
disease  of  his  head  vanish  like  the  dew  of  night.  M.ay  Ea's  ])rcscrip- 
tion  heal  him  !     Mav  Damkina  heal  him.' "' 


l62  T^^ff'  STORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 

15.  Another  dialogue  of  the  same  sort,  in  whicli 
Ea  is  consulted  as  to  the  means  of  breaking  the 
power  of  the  Maskim,  ends  b)'  his  revealing  that 

"  The  white  cedar  is  the  tree  which  breaks  the  Maskim's  noxious 
might." 

In  fact  the  white  cedar  was  considered  an  infal- 
lible defence  against  all  spells  and  evil  powers. 
Any  action  or  ceremony  described  in  the  conjura- 
tion must  of  course  be  performed  even  as  the  words 
are  spoken.  Then  there  is  a  long  one,  perhaps 
the  best  preserved  of  all,  to  be  recited  b\-  the  suf- 
ferer, w'ho  is  supposed  to  be  under  the  effects  of 
an  evil  spell,  and  from  which  it  is  evident  that  the 
words  are  to  accompany  actions  performed  b\-  the 
conjurer.  It  is  divided  into  parallel  verses,  of  which 
the  first  runs  thus  : 

"As  this  onion  is  being  peeled  of  its  skins,  thus  shall  it  be  of  the 
spell.  The  burning  fire  shall  consume  it ;  it  shall  no  more  be 
planted  in  a  row,  ....  the  ground  shall  not  receive  its  root,  its  head 
shall  contain  no  seed  and  the  sun  shall  not  take  care  of  it ; — it  shall  not 
be  offered  at  the  feast  of  a  god  or  a  king. — The  man  who  has  cast 
the  evil  spell,  his  eldest  son,  his  wife, — the  spell,  the  lamentations, 
the  transgressions,  the  written  spells,  the  blasphemies,  the  sins, — the 
evil  which  is  in  my  body,  in  my  flesh,  in  my  sores, — may  they  all  be 
destroyed  as  this  onion,  and  may  the  burning  fire  consume  them  this 
day  !     May  the  evil  spell  go  far  away,  and  may  I  see  the  light  again  !  " 

Then  the  destruction  of  a  date  is  similarly  de- 
scribed : 

"  It  shall  not  return  to  the  bough  from  which  it  has  been  plucked." 

The  untying  of  a  knot  : 

"  Its  threads  shall  not  return  to  the  stem  which  has  produced  them." 
The  tearing  up  of  some  wool  : 


TURANIAN  CHALDEA  1 63 

"  It  shall  not  return  to  the  back  of  its  sheep." 

The  tearing  of  some  stuff,  and  after  each  act  the 
second  verse : 

"  The  man  who  has  cast  the  spell,"  etc. 

is  repeated. 

16.  It  is  devoutly  to  be  hoped,  for  the  patients' 
sake,  that  treatments  like  these  took  effect  on  the 
disease,  for  the)'  got  no  other.  Diseases  being  con- 
ceived as  personal  demons  who  entered  a  man's 
body  of  their  own  accord  or  under  compulsion  from 
powerful  sorcerers,  and  illness  being  consequently 
considered  as  a  kind  of  possession,  clearly  the  only 
thing  to  do  was  to  drive  out  the  demon  or  break 
the  spell  with  the  aid  of  the  beneficent  Ea  and  his 
son.  If  this  intervention  was  of  no  avail,  nothing 
remained  for  the  patient  but  to  get  well  as  he 
could,  or  to  die.  This  is  why  there  never  was  a 
science  of  medicine  in  the  proper  sense  in  Chaldea, 
even  as  late  as  three  or  four  hundred  years  B.C., 
and  the  Greek  travellers  who  then  visited  Babylon 
must  have  been  not  a  little  shocked  at  the  custom 
they  found  there  of  bringing  desperately  sick  per- 
sons out  of  the  houses  with  their  beds  and  expos- 
ing them  in  the  streets,  when  any  passer-by  could 
approach  them,  inquire  into  the  disease  and  suggest 
some  remedy — which  was  sure  to  be  tried  as  a  last 
chance.  This  extraordinary  experiment  was  of 
course  not  resorted  to  until  all  known  forms  of 
conjuration  had  been  gone  through  and  had  proved 
inefficient. 

17.  The   belief  that   certain   words  and.  impreca- 


164 


THE  STORY  OF  CHAf.DE A. 


tions  could  break  the  power  of  demons  or  sorcerers 
must  have  naturally  led  to  the  notion  that  to  wear 
such  imprecations,  written  on  some  substance  or  ar- 
ticle, always  about  one's  person  must  be  a  continual 
defence  against  them ;  while  on  the  other  hand, 
words  of  invocation  to  the  beneficent  spirits  and 
images  representing  them,  worn  in  the  same  way, 
must  draw  down  on  the  wearer  those  spirits'  pro- 
tection and  blessing.  Hence  the  passion  for  talis- 
mans. They  were  of  various  kinds  :  strips  of  stuff, 
with  the  magic  words  written  on  them,  to  be  fast- 
ened to  the  body,  or  the  clothes,  or  articles  of 
household  furniture,  were  much  used ;  but  small 
articles  of  clay  or  hard  stone  were  in  greater 
favor  on  account  of  their  durability.  As  houses 
could  be  possessed  by  evil  spirits  just  as  well  as 
individuals,  talismans  were  placed  in  different  parts 
of  them  for  protection,  and  this  belief  was  so 
enduring  that  small  clay  figures  of  gods  were  found 
in  Assyrian  palaces  under  thresholds — as  in  the 
palace  of  Khorsabad,  by  Botta — placed  there  "  to 
keep  from  it  fiends  and  enemies."  It  has  been 
discovered  in  this  manner  that  many  of  the  sculp- 
tures which  adorned  the  Assyrian  palaces  and 
temples  were  of  talismanic  nature.  Thus  the 
winged  bulls  placed  at  the  gateways  were  nothing 
but  representations  of  an  Accadian  class  of  guardian 
spirits, — the  Kirilbu,  Hebrew  Kcrubini.  of  which  we 
have  made  Cherub,  Chcntbiiii — who  were  supposed 
to  keep  watch  at  entrances,  even  at  that  of  the 
Arali,  while  some  sculptures  on  which  demons — in 
the  shape  of  hideous  monsters — are  seen  fighting 


53- — DEMONS    FIGHTING. 
(From  the  British  Museum.) 


1 66  THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

eacli  other,  are,  so  to  speak,  imprecations  in  stone, 
which,  if  translated  into  words,  would  mean  :  "  May 
the  evil  demons  stay  outside,  may  they  assail  and 
fight  each  other," — as,  in  that  case,  they  would 
clearly  have  no  leisure  to  assail  the  inhabitants  of 
the  dwelling.  That  these  sculptures  really  were  re- 
garded as  talismans  and  expected  to  guard  the 
inmates  from  harm,  is  abundantly  shown  by  the 
manner  in  which  they  are  mentioned  in  several 
inscriptions,  down  to  a  very  late  date.  Thus  Esar- 
haddon,  one  of  the  last  kings  of  Assyria  (about 
700  B.C.),  says,  after  describing  a  very  sumptuous 
palace  which  he  had  built  : — "  1  placed*  in  its  gates 
bulls  and  colossi,  who,  according  to  their  fixed 
command,  against  the  wicked  turn  themselves ; 
they  protect  the  footsteps,  making  peace  to  be 
upon  the  path  of  the  king  their  creator." 

18.  The  cylinder  seals  with  their  inscriptions  and 
engraved  figures  were  mostly  also  talismans  of  like 
nature  ;  which  must  be  the  reason  why  so  many  are 
found  in  graves,  tied  to  the  dead  person's  wrist  by  a 
string — evidently  as  a  protection  against  the  fiends 
which  the  departed  spirit  was  expected  to  meet. 
The  magic  power  was  of  course  conferred  on  all 
talismans  by  the  words  which  the  conjurer  spoke 
over  them  with  the  necessary  ceremonies.  One 
such  long  incantation  is  preserved  entire.  It  is 
designed  to  impart  to  the  talisman  the  power  of 
keeping  the  demons  from  all  parts  of  the  dwelling, 
which  are  singly  enumerated,  with  the  conse- 
quences to  the  demons  who  would  dare  to  trespass  : 
those    who    steal     into     gutters,    remove    bolts    or 


TURANIAN  CHALDEA.  j5- 

hinges,  shall  be  broken  like  an  earthen  jug,  crushed 
like  clay ;  those  who  overstep  the  wooden  frame  of 
the  house  shall  be  clipped  of  their  wings ;  those 
who  stretch  their  neck  in  at  the  window,  the  win- 
dow shall  descend  and  cut  their  throat.  The  most 
original  in  this  class  of  superstitions  was  that 
which,  according  to  Lenormant,  consisted  in  the 
notion  that  all  these  demons  were  of  so  unutterably 
ugly  a  form  and  countenance,  that  they  must  fly 
away  terrified  if  they  only  beheld  their  own  like- 
ness. As  an  illustration  of  this  principle  he  gives 
an  incantation  against  "the  wicked  Namtar. "  It 
begins  with  a  highly  graphic  description  of  the 
terrible  demon,  who  is  said  to  "  take  man  captive 
like  an  enemy,"  to  "  burn  him  like  a  flame,"  to 
"  double  him  up  like  a  bundle,"  to  "  assail  man, 
although  having  neither  hand  nor  foot,  like  a 
noose."  Then  follows  the  usual  dialogue  between 
Ea  and  Meridug,  (in  the  identical  words  given 
above),  and  Ea  at  length  reveals  the  prescription  : 
"Come  hither,  my  son  Meridug.  Take  mud  of  the 
Ocean  and  knead  out  of  it  a  likeness  of  him,  (the 
Namtar.)  Lay  down  the  man,  after  thou  hast 
purified  him  ;  lay  the  image  on  his  bare  abdomen, 
impart  to  it  my  magic  power  and  turn  its  face  west- 
ward, that  the  wicked  Namtar,  who  dwells  in  his 
body,  may  take  up  some  other  abode.  Amen." 
The  idea  is  that  the  Namtar,  on  beholding  his  own 
likeness,  will  flee  from  it  in  dismay  ! 

19.  To  this  same  class  belongs  a  small  bronze 
statuette,  which  is  to  be  seen  in  the  Louvre.  Mr. 
Lenormant  thus  describes  it :  "  It  is  the  imaee  of  a 


1 68  tup:  s  tor  y  of  cha  l  dea  . 

horrible  demon,  standing,  with  tlic  body  of  a  dog, 
the  talons  of  an  eagle,  arms  ending  in  a  lion's  paws, 
the  tail  of  a  scorpion,  the  head  of  a  skeleton,  but 
with  eyes,  and  a  goat's  horns,  and  with  four  large 
wings  at  the  back,  unfolded.  A  ring  placed  at  the 
back  of  the  head  served  to  hang  the  figure  up. 
Along  the  back  is  an  inscription  in  the  Accadian 
language,  informing  us  that  this  pretty  creature  is 
the  Demon  of  the  South-west  Wind,  and  is  to  be 
placed  at  the  door  or  window.  For  in  Chaldea  the 
South-west  Wind  comes  from  the  deserts  of  Arabia, 
its  burning  breath  consumes  everything  and  pro- 
duces the  same  ravages  as  the  Simoon  in  Africa. 
Therefore  this  particular  talisman  is  most  frequently 
met  with.  Our  museums  contain  many  other  fig- 
ures of  demons,  used  as  talismans  to  frighten  away 
the  evil  spirits  they  were  supposed  to  represent. 
One  has  the  head  of  a  goat  on  a  disproportionately 
long  neck  ;  another  shows  a  hyena's  head,  with  huge 
open  mouth,  on  a  bear's  body  with  lion's  paws." 
On  the  principle  that  possession  is  best  guarded 
against  by  the  presence  of  beneficent  spirits,  the 
exorcisms— i.e.,  forms  of  conjuring  designed  to 
drive  the  evil  demons  out  of  a  man  or  dwelling — 
are  usually  accompanied  with  a  request  to  good 
spirits  to  enter  the  one  or  the  other,  instead  of  the 
wicked  ones  who  have  been  ejected.  The  supreme 
power  which  breaks  that  of  all  incantations,  talis- 
mans, conjuring  rites  whatever,  is,  it  would  appear, 
supposed  to  reside  in  a  great,  divine  name, — pos- 
sibly a  name  of  Ea  himself.  At  all  events,  it  is 
Ea's  own   secret.     For  even  in  his  dialogues  with 


54. 


__DEMO.N    OF   THE   SOUrH-WEST    WIND. 
(.Perrot  and  Chippicz.) 


170 


THE  STORY  OF  C/IALDEA. 


Meridug,  when  entreated  for  this  supreme  aid  in 
desperate  cases,  he  is  only  supposed  to  impart  it  to 
his  son  to  use  against  the  obdurate  demons  and 
thereby  crush  their  power,  but  it  is  not  given,  so 
that  the  demons  are  only  threatened  with  it,  but 
it  is  not  actually  uttered  in  the  course  of  the  incan- 
tations. 

20.  Not  entirely  unassisted  did  Ea  pursue  his 
gigantic  task  of  protection  and 
healing.  Along  with  him  invo- 
cations are  often  addressed  to 
several  other  spirits  conceived 
as  essentially  good  divine  be- 
ings, whose  beneficent  influence 
is  felt  in  many  ways.  Such 
was  Im,  the  Storm-Wind,  with 
its  accompanying  v  i  v  i  f  y  i  n  g 
showers;  such  are  the  purify- 
|ing  and  wholesome  Waters,  the 
Rivers  and  Springs  which  feed 
]the  earth;  above  all,  such  were 
the  Sun  and  Fife,  also  the 
-HEAD  OF  DEMON,  m^q^^  objects  of  doublc  rcvcr- 
ence  and  gratitude  because  they  dispel  the  darkness 
of  night,  which  the  Shumiro-Accads  loathed  and 
feared  excessively,  as  the  time  when  the  wicked 
demons  are  strongest  and  the  power  of  bad  men  for 
weaving  deadly  spells  is  greatest.  The  third  Book 
of  the  Collection  of  Magic  Texts  is  composed  al- 
most entirely  of  hymns  to  these  deities — as  well  as 
to  Ea  and  Meridug — which  betray  a  somewhat  later 
stage  in  the  nation's  religious  development,  by  the 


TURANIAN  CHALDEA. 


171 


poetical  beauty  of  some  of  the  fragments,  and  es- 
pecially by  a  purer  feeling  of  adoration  and  a  higher 
perception  of  moral  goodness,  which  are  absent 
from  the  oldest  incantations. 

21.  At  noon,  when  the  sun  has  reached  the  high- 
est point  in  its  heavenly  course,  the  earth  lies  before 
it  without  a  shadow ;  all  things,  good  or  bad,  are 
manifest ;  its  beams,  after  dispelling  the  unfriendly 
gloom,  pierce  into  every  nook  and  cranny,  bringing 
into  light  all  ugly  things  that  hide  and  lurk  ;  the 
evil-doer  cowers  and  shuns  its  all-revealing  splendor, 
and,  to  perform  his  accursed  deeds,  waits  the  return 
of  his  dark  accomplice,  night.  What  wonder  then 
that  to  the  Shumiro-Accads  Ud,  the  Sun  in  all  its 
midday  glory,  was  a  very  hero  of  protection,  the 
source  of  truth  and  justice,  the  "supreme  judge  in 
Heaven  and  on  earth,"  who  "knows  lie  from  truth," 
who  knows  the  truth  that  is  in  the  soul  of  man. 
The  hymns  to  Ud  that  have  been  deciphered  are 
full  of  beautiful  images.  Take  for  instance  the  fol- 
lowing : — 

"  O  Sun,*  I  have  called  unto  thee  m  the  bright  heavens.  In  the 
shadow  of  the  cedar  art  thou;  "  (i.e.,  it  is  thou  who  makest  the  cedar 
to  cast  its  shadow,  holy  and  auspicious  as  the  tree  itself. )  "  Thy 
feet  are  on  the  summits.  .  .  .  The  countries  have  wished  for  thee, 
they  have  longed  for  thy  coming,  O  Lord!  Thy  radiant  light 
illumines  all  countries.  .  .  .  Thou  makest  lies  to  vanish,  thou 
destroyest  the  noxious  influence  of  portents,  omens,  spells,  dreams 
and  evil  apparitions ;  thou  turnest  wicked  plots  to  a  happy 
issue.  ..." 

*  "  Ud  "  not  being  a  proper  name,  but  the  name  of  the  sun  in  the 
language  of  Shumir  and  Accad,  it  can  be  rendered  in  translation  by 
"  Sun,"  with  a  capital. 


1/2 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


This  is  both  true  and  finely  expressed.  For  what 
most  inveterate  behever  in  ghosts  and  apparitions 
ever  feared  them  by  daylight  ?  and  the  last  touch 
shows  much  moral  sense  and  observation  of  the 
mysterious  workings  of  a  beneficent  power  which 
often  not  merely  defeats  evil  but  even  turns  it  into 
good.  There  is  splendid  poetry  in  the  following 
fragment  describing  the  glory  of  sunrise: — 

"  O  Sun !  thou  hast  stepped  forth  from  the  background  of  heaven, 
thou  hast  pushed  back  the  bolts  of  the  brilliant  heaven, — yea,  the 
gate  of  heaven.  O  Sun  !  above  the  land  thou  hast  raised  thy  head ! 
O  Sun !  thou  hast  covered  the  immeasurable  si)ace  of  heaven  and 
countries  !" 

Another  hymn  describes  how,  at  the  Sun's  ap- 
pearance in  the  brilliant  portals  of  the  heavens, 
and  during  his  progress  to  their  highest  point, 
all  the  great  gods  turn  to  his  light,  all  the  good 
spirits  of  heaven  and  earth  gaze  up  to  his  face, 
surround  him  joyfully  and  reverently,  and  escort 
him  in  solemn  procession.  It  needs  only  to  put 
all  these  fragments  into  fine  verse  to  make  out  of 
them  a  poem  which  will  be  held  beautiful  even  in 
our  day,  when  from  our  very  childhood  we  learn 
to  know  the  difference  between  good  and  poor  poe- 
try, growing  up,  as  we  do,  on  the  best  of  all  ages 
and  all  countries. 

22.  When  the  sun  disappeared  in  the  West,  sink- 
ing rapidly,  and  diving,  as  it  were,  into  the  very 
midst  of  darkness,  the  Shumiro-Accads  did  not 
fancy  him  as  either  asleep  or  inactive,  but  on  the 
contrary  as  still  engaged  in  his  everlasting  work. 
Under  the  name  of   NiN-DAR,   he   travels   through 


TURANIAN  CHALDEA. 


^71^ 


the  dreary  regions  ruled  by  Mulge  and,  his  essence 
being  ligJit,  he  combats  the  powers  of  darkness  in 
their  own  home,  till  He  comes  out  of  it,  a  trium- 
phant hero,  in  the  morning.  Nin-dar  is  also  the 
keeper  of  the  hidden  treasures  of  the  earth — its 
metals  and  precious  stones,  because,  according  to 
Mr.  Lenormant's  ingenious  remark,  "they  only 
wait,  like  him,  the  moment  of  emerging  out  of  the 
earth,  to  emit  a  bright  radiancy."  This  radiancy  of 
precious  stones,  which  is  like  a  concentration  of 
light  in  its  purest  form,  w^as  probably  the  reason 
why  they  were  in  such  general  use  as  talismans, 
quite  as  much  as  their  hardness  and  durability. 

23.  But  while  the  Sun  accomplishes  his  nightly 
underground  journey,  men  would  be  left  a  prey  to 
mortal  terrors  in  the  upper  world,  deprived  of  light, 
their  chief  defence  against  the  evil  brood  of  dark- 
ness, were  it  not  for  his  substitute.  Fire,  who  is  by 
nature  also  a  being  of  light,  and,  as  such,  the  friend 
of  men,  from  whose  paths  and  dwellings  he  scares 
not  only  wild  beasts  and  foes  armed  with  open  vio- 
lence, but  the  far  more  dangerous  hosts  of  unseen 
enemies,  both  demons  and  spells  cast  by  wicked 
sorcerers.  It  is  in  this  capacity  of  protector  that 
the  god  GiBIL  (Fire)  is  chiefly  invoked.  In  one 
very  complete  hymn  he  is  addressed  thus  : — 

"  Thou  who  drivest  away  the  evil  Maskim,  who  furtherest  the 
well-being  of  life,  who  strikest  the  breast  of  the  wicked  with  terror, — 
Fire,  the  destroyer  of  foes,  dread  weapon  which  drivest  away  Pesti- 
lence." 

This  last  attribute  would  show  that  the  Shumiro- 
Accads  had  noticed  the  hygienic  properties  of  fire. 


1^4  77/^:  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

which  does  indeed  help  to  dispel  miasmas  on  ac- 
count of  the  strong  ventilation  which  a  great  blaze 
sets  going.  Thus  at  a  comparatively  late  epoch, 
some  400  years  B.C.,  a  terrible  plague  broke  out  at 
Athens,  the  Greek  city,  and  Hippocrates,  a  physi- 
cian of  great  genius  and  renown,  who  has  been 
called  "  the  Father  of  Medicine,"  tried  to  diminish 
the  contagion  by  keeping  huge  fires  continually 
blazing  at  different  points  of  the  city.  It  is  the 
same  very  correct  idea  which  made  men  invoke  Gi- 
bil  as  he  who  purifies  the  works  of  man.  He  is 
also  frequently  called  "  the  protector  of  the  dwell- 
ing, of  the  family,"  and  praised  for  "  creating  light 
in  the  house  of  darkness,"  and  for  bringing  peace  to 
all  creation.  Over  and  above  these  claims  to  grati- 
tude, Gibil  had  a  special  importance  in  the  life  of  a 
people  given  to  the  works  of  metallurgy,  of  which 
fire  is  the  chief  agent:  "It  is  thou,"  says  one 
hymn,  "  who  mixest  tin  and  copper,  it  is  thou  who 
purifiest  silver  and  gold."  Now  the  mixture  of  tin 
and  copper  produces  bronze,  the  first  metal  which 
has  been  used  to  make  weapons  and  tools  of,  in 
most  cases  long  before  iron,  which  is  much  more  dif- 
ficult to  work,  and  as  the  quality  of  the  metal  de- 
pends on  the  proper  mixture  of  the  two  ingredients, 
it  is  but  natural  that  the  aid  of  the  god  Fire  should 
have  been  specially  invoked  for  the  operation.  But 
Fire  is  not  only  a  great  power  on  earth,  it  is  also,  in 
the  shape  of  Lightning,  one  of  the  dreadest  and 
most  mysterious  powers  of  the  skies,  and  as  such 
sometimes  called  son  of  Ana  (Heaven),  or,  in  a  more 
roundabout  way,  "the   Hero,  son  of  the  Ocean" — 


TURANIAN  CHALDEA. 


175 


meaning  the  celestial  Ocean,  the  great  reservoir  of 
rains,  from  which  the  lightning  seems  to  spring,  as 
it  flashes  through  the  heavy  showers  of  a  Southern 
thunder  storm.  In  whatever  shape  he  appear,  and 
whatever  his  functions,  Gibil  is  hailed  as  an  invaria- 
bly beneficent  and  friendly  being. 

24.  When  the  feeling  of  helplessness  forced  on 
man  by  his  position  in  the  midst  of  nature  takes  the 
form  of  a  reverence  for  and  dependence  on  beings 
whom  he  conceives  of  as  essentially  good,  a  far 
nobler  religion  and  far  higher  moral  tone  are  the 
immediate  consequence.  This  conception  of  abso- 
lute goodness  sprang  from  the  observation  that 
certain  beings  or  spirits — like  the  Sun,  Fire,  the 
Thunderstorm — though  possessing  the  power  of  do- 
ing both  good  and  harm,  used  it  almost  exclusively 
for  the  benefit  of  men.  This  position  once  firmly 
established,  the  conclusion  naturally  followed,  that 
if  these  good  beings  once  in  awhile  sent  down  a 
catastrophe  or  calamity, — if  the  Sun  scorched  the 
fields  or  the  Thunderstorm  swamped  them,  if  the 
wholesome  North  Wind  swept  away  the  huts  and 
broke  down  the  trees — it  must  be  in  anger,  as  a 
mark  of  displeasure — in  punishment.  By  what 
could  man  provoke  the  displeasure  of  kind  and  ben- 
eficent beings?  Clearly  by  not  being  like  them, 
by  doing  not  good,  but  evil.  And  what  is  evil? 
That  which  is  contrary  to  the  nature  of  the  good 
spirits  :  doing  wrong  and  harm  to  men  ;  committing 
sins  and  wicked  actions.  To  avoid,  therefore,  pro- 
voking the  anger  of  those  good  but  powerful 
spirits,  so  terrible   in  its  manifestations,  it  is  neces- 


176 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


sary  to  try  to  please  them,  and  that  can  be  done  only 
by  being  like  them, — good,  or  at  least  striving  to 
be  so,  and,  when  temptation,  ignorance,  passion  or 
weakness  of  will  have  betrayed  man  into  a  trans- 
gression, to  confess  it,  express  regret  lor  the  offence 
and  an  intention  not  to  offend  again,  in  order  to 
obtain  forgiveness  and  be  spared.  A  righteous  life, 
then,  prayer  and  repentance  are  the  proper  means 
of  securing  divine  favor  or  mercy.  It  is  evident 
that  a  religion  from  which  such  lessons  naturally 
spring  is  a  great  improvement  on  a  belief  in  beings 
who  do  good  or  evil  indiscriminately,  indeed  prefer 
doing  evil,  a  belief  which  cannot  teach  a  distinction 
between  moral  right  and  wrong,  or  a  rational  distri- 
bution of  rewards  or  punishment,  nor  consequently 
inculcate  the  feeling  of  duty  and  responsibility, 
without  which  goodness  as  a  mattef  of  principle  is 
impossible  and  a  reliable  state  of  society  unattain- 
able. 

25.  This  higher  and  therefore  later  stage  of 
moral  and  religious  development  is  very  perceptible 
in  the  third  book  of  the  Magic  Collection.  With 
the  appreciation  of  absolute  goodness,  conscience 
has  awakened,  and  speaks  with  such  insistence  and 
authority  that  the  Shumiro-Accad,  in  the  simplic- 
ity of  his  mind,  has  earnestly  imagined  it  to  be  the 
voice  of  a  personal  and  separate  deity,  a  guardian 
spirit  belonging  to  each  man,  dwelling  within  him 
and  living  his  life.  It  is  a  god — sometimes  even  a 
divine  couple,  both  "  god  and  goddess,  pure  spirits" 
— who  protects  him  from  his  birth,  yet  is  not  proof 
against  the  spells  of  sorcerers  and  the  attacks  of  the 


TURANIAN  CHALDEA.  lyy 

demons,  and  even  can  be  compelled  to  work  evil  in 
the  person  committed  to   its  care,  and  frequently 
called   therefore  "  the   son   of  his   god,"  as  we   saw 
above,  in  the  incantation  against  the  Disease  of  the 
Head.     The  conjuration  or  exorcism  which  drives 
out    the    demon,    of   course    restores   the  guardian 
spirit  to  its  own  beneficent  nature,  and  the  patient 
not  only  to  bodily  well-being,  but  also  to  peace  of 
mind.     That  is  what  is  desired,  when  a  prayer  for 
the  cure  of  a  sick  or  possessed  person  ends  with  the 
words :   "  May   he   be   placed   again  in  the  gracious 
hands  of  his  god  !  "     When  therefore  a  man  is   rep- 
resented as  speaking  to  "  his  god  "  and   confessing 
to  him  his  sin  and  distress,  it  is  only  a  way  of  ex- 
pressing that  silent  self-communing  of  the  soul,  in 
which   it   reviews  its   own   deficiencies,  forms   good 
resolutions  and  prays  to  be  released  from  the  intol- 
erable burden  of  sin.     There  are  some  most  beauti- 
ful prayers  of  this  sort   in   the  collection.      They 
have  been    called    "the  Penitential    Psalms,"   from 
their  striking  likeness  to  some  of  those  psalms  in 
which    King    David    confesses    his    iniquities  and 
humbles  himself    before  the  Lord.      The   likeness 
extends  to  both  spirit  and  form,  almost  to  words. 
If    the    older    poet,    in   his    spiritual   groping,    ad- 
dresses "  his  god  and    goddess,"  the  higher,  better 
self  which  he  feels  within  him  and  feels  to  be  divine 
— his  Conscience,  instead  of  the  One  God  and  Lord, 
his  feeling  is   not   less  earnest,  his  appeal  not   less 
pure  and   confiding.      He  confesses  his    transgres- 
sion,   but    pleads    ignorance    and    sues    for    mercy. 
Here   are    some  of    the   principal  verses,   of  which 


178  ^^^^'  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

each  is  repeated  twice,  once  addressed  to  "  my 
god,"  and  the  second  time  to  "  mj'  goddess."  The 
title  of  the  Psalm  is:  "The  complaints  of  the  re- 
pentant heart.     Sixty-five  verses  in  all." 

26.  "  My  Lord,  may  the  anger  of  his  heart  be  allayed  !  May  the 
fool  attain  understanding  !  The  god  who  knows  the  unknown,  may 
he  be  conciliated  !  The  goddess  who  knows  the  unknown,  may  she 
be  conciliated ! — I  eat  the  food  of  wrath  and  drink  the  waters  of 
anguish.  .  .  .  O  my  god,  my  transgressions  are  very  great,  very  great 
my  sins.  ...  I  transgress,  and  know  it  not.  I  sin,  and  know  it  not. 
I  feed  on  transgressions,  and  know  it  not.  I  wander  on  wrong 
paths,  and  know  it  not. — The  Lord,  in  the  wrath  of  his  heart,  has 
overwhelmed  me  with  confusion.  ...  I  lie  on  the  ground,  and  none 
reaches  a  hand  to  me.  I  am  silent  and  in  tears,  and  none  takes  me 
by  the  hand.  I  cry  out,  and  there  is  none  that  hears  me.  I  am 
e.xhausted,  oppressed,  and  none  releases  me.  .  .  .  My  god,  who 
knowest  the  unknown,  be  merciful !  .  .  .  .  My  goddess,  who  know- 
est  the  unknown,  be  merciful !  .  .  .  .  How  long,  O  my  god  ?  .  .  .  . 
How  long,  O  my  goddess .'....  Lord,  thou  wilt  not  repulse  thy 
servant.  In  the  midst  of  the  stormy  waters,  come  to  my  assistance, 
take  me  by  the  hand  !  I  commit  sins — turn  them  into  blessedness  ! 
I  commit  transgressions — let  the  wind  sweep  them  away !  My  blas- 
phemies are  very  many — rend  them  like  a  garment !  .  ,  .  .  God  who 
knowest  the  unknown,*  my  sins  are  seven  times  seven, — forgive  my 
sins!  .  .  .  ." 

27.  The  religious  feeling  once  roused  to  this  ex- 
tent, it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  in  some  invoca- 
tions the  distress  or  disease  which  had  formerly 
been  taken  as  a  gratuitous  visitation,  begins  to  be 
considered  in  the  light  of  a  divine  punishment,  even 
though  the  afflicted  person  be  the  king  himself. 
This  is  very  evident  from  the  concluding  passage  of 

*  Another  and  more  recent  translator  renders  this  line  :  "  God 
who  knowest  I  knew  not."  Whichever  rendering  is  right,  the 
thought  is  beautiful  and  profound. 


TURANIAN  CHALDEA .  j  yg 

a  hymn  to  the  Sun,  in  which  it  is  the  conjurer  who 
speaks  on  behalf  of  the  patient,  while  presenting  an 
ofifering : — 

"  O  Sun,  leave  not  my  uplifted  hands  unregarded  ! — Eat  his  food, 
refuse  not  his  sacrifice,  bring  back  his  god  to  him,  to  be  a  support 
unto  his  hand ! — May  his  sin,  at  thy  behest,  be  forgiven  him,  his  mis- 
deed be  forgotten  ! — May  his  trouble  leave  him !  May  he  recover 
from  his  illness ! — Give  to  the  king  new  vital  strength.  .  .  .  Escort 
the  king,  who  lies  at  thy  feet ! — Also  me,  the  conjurer,  thy  respect- 
ful servant ! " 

28.  There  is  another  hymn  of  the  same  kind,  not 
less  remarkable  for  its  artistic  and  regular  construc- 
tion than  for  its  beauty  of  feeling  and  diction.  The 
penitent  speaks  five  double  lines,  and  the  priest 
adds  two  more,  as  though  endorsing  the  prayer  and 
supporting  it  with  the  weight  of  his  own  sacred 
character.  This  gives  very  regular  strophes,  of 
which,  unfortunately,  only  two  have  been  well  pre- 
served : — 

Penitefit. — "  I,  thy  servant,  full  of  sighs,  I  call  to  thee.  Whoever 
is  beset  with  sin,  his  ardent  supplication  thou  acceptest.  If  thou 
lookest  on  a  man  with  pity,  that  man  liveth.  Ruler  of  all,  mistress 
of  mankind  !  Merciful  one,  to  whom  it  is  good  to  turn,  who  dost 
receive  sighs  !  "  Priest. — "  While  his  god  and  his  goddess  are 
wroth  with  him  he  calls  on  thee.  Thy  countenance  turn  on  him, 
take  hold  of  his  hand." 

Penitent. — "  Besides  thee  there  is  no  deity  to  lead  in  righteousness. 
Kindly  look  on  me,  accept  my  sighs.  Speak  :  how  long  ?  and  let 
thine  heart  be  appeased.  When,  O  Lady,  will  thy  countenance  turn 
on  me?  Even  like  doves  I  moan,  I  feed  on  sighs."  Priest. — "  His 
heart  is  full  of  woe  and  trouble,  and  full  of  sighs.  Tears  he  sheds 
and  breaks  out  into  lamentation."  * 

*  This  hymn  is  given  by  H.  Zimmern,  as  the  text  to  a  dissertation 
on  the  language  and  grammar. 


l8o  THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

29.  Such  is  a  not  incomplete  outline  of  this 
strange  and  primitive  religion,  the  religion  of  a  peo- 
ple whose  existence  was  not  suspected  twenty-five 
years  ago,  yet  which  claims,  with  the  Egyptians  and 
the  Chinese,  the  distinction  of  being  one  of  the  old- 
est on  earth,  and  in  all  probability  was  older  than 
both.  This  discovery  is  on.e  of  the  most  important 
conquests  of  modern  science,  not  only  from  its  being 
highly  interesting  in  itself,  but  from  the  light  it 
throws  on  innumerable  hitherto  obscure  points  in 
the  history  of  the  ancient  world,  nay,  on  many  cu- 
rious facts  which  reach  down  to  our  own  time. 
Thus,  the  numerous  Turanian  tribes  which  exist  in 
a  wholly  or  half  nomadic  condition  in  the  immense 
plains  of  Eastern  and  South-eastern  Russia,  in  the 
forests  and  wastes  of  Siberia,  on  the  steppes  and 
highlands  of  Central  Asia,  have  no  other  religion 
now  than  this  of  the  old  Shumiro-Accads,  in  its 
earliest  and  most  material  shape.  Everything  to 
them  is  a  spirit  or  has  a  spirit  of  its  own  :  they  have 
no  worship,  no  moral  teaching,  but  only  conjuring, 
sorcerers,  not  priests.  These  men  are  called  SJia- 
mafis  and  have  great  influence  among  the  tribes. 
The  more  advanced  and  cultivated  Turanians,  like 
the  Mongols  and  Mandchous.  accord  to  one  great 
Spirit  the  supremacy  over  all  others  and  call  that 
Spirit  which  they  conceive  as  absolutely  good,  mer- 
ciful and  just,  "  Heaven,"  just  as  the  Shumiro-Ac- 
cads invoked  "  Ana."  This  has  been  and  still  is 
the  oldest  national  religion  of  the  Chinese.  They 
say  "  Heaven  "  wherever  we  would  say  "  God,"  and 


TURANIAN  CHALDEA. 


I8l 


with  the  same  idea  of  loving  adoration  and  reverent 
dread,  which  does  not  prevent  them  from  invoking 
the  spirit  of  every  hill,  river,  wind  or  forest,  and 
numbering  among  this  host  also  the  souls  of  the 
deceased.  This  clearly  corresponds  to  the  second 
and  higher  stage  of  the  Accadian  religion,  and  marks 
the  utmost  limit  which  the  Yellow  Race  have  been 
able  to  attain  in  spiritual  life.  True,  the  greater 
part  of  the  Chinese  now  have  another  religion  ; 
they  are  Buddhists  ;  while  the  Turks  and  the  great 
majority  of  the  Tatars,  Mongols  and  Mandchous, 
not  to  speak  of  other  less  important  divisions,  are 
Mussulmans.  But  both  Buddhism  and  Mahome- 
tanism  are  foreign  religions,  which  they  have  bor- 
rowed, adopted,  not  worked  out  for  themselves. 
Here  then  we  are  also  met  by  that  fatal  law  of  limi- 
tation, which  through  all  ages  seems  to  have  said 
to  the  men  of  yellow  skin  and  high  cheek-bones, 
"Thus  far  shalt  thou  go,  and  no  further."  Thus  it 
was  in  Chaldea.  The  work  of  civilization  and  spirit- 
ual development  begun  by  the  people  of  Shumir  and 
Accad  was  soon  taken  out  of  their  hands  and  carried 
on  by  newcomers  from  the  east,  those  descendants 
of  Noah,  who  "  found  a  plain  in  the  land  of  Shinar 
and  dwelt  there." 

APPENDIX   TO   CHAPTER   III. 

Professor  Louis  Dyer,  of  Harvard  University,  has 
attempted  a  rendering  into  English  verse  of  the 
famous  incantation  of  the  Seven  Maskim.  The 
result  of  the  experiment  is  a  translation  most  faith- 


J  8  2  THE  STORY  OF  C//A  L  DEA . 

ful  in  the  spirit  and  main  features,  if  not  always 
literal  ;  and  which,  by  his  kind  permission,  we  here 
offer  to  our  readers. 

A    CHARM. 


Seven  are  they,  they  are  seven  ; 

In  the  caverns  of  ocean  they  dwell. 
They  are  clothed  in  the  lightnings  of  heaven, 

Of  their  growth  the  deep  waters  can  tell : 
Seven  are  they,  they  are  seven. 

II. 

Broad  is  their  way  and  their  course  is  wide. 
Where  the  seeds  of  destruction  they  sow, 

O'er  the  tops  of  the  hills  where  they  stride. 
To  lay  waste  the  smooth  highways  below, — 

Broad  is  their  way  and  their  course  is  wide. 

HI. 

Man  they  are  not,  nor  womankind, 
For  in  fury  they  sweep  from  the  main, 

And  have  wedded  no  wife  but  the  wind, 
And  no  child  have  begotten  but  pain, — 

Man  they  are  not,  nor  womankind. 

IV. 

Fear  is  not  in  them,  not  awe  ; 

Supplication  they  heed  not,  nor  ])rayer, 
For  they  know  no  compassion  nor  law, 

And  are  deaf  to  the  cries  of  despair, — 
Fear  is  not  in  them,  not  awe. 


Cursed  they  are,  they  are  cursed, 

They  are  foes  to  wise  Ea's  great  name  ; 

By  the  whirlwind  are  all  things  dispersed 
On  the  paths  of  the  flash  of  their  flame, - 

Cursed  they  are,  they  are  cursed. 


TURANIAN  CHALDEA. 


183 


Spirit  of  Heaven,  oh,  help!  Help,  oh,  Spirit  of  Earth  1 
They  are  seven,  thrice  said  they  are  seven  ; 
For  the  gods  they  are  Bearers  of  Thrones, 
But  for  men  they  are  Breeders  of  Dearth 
And  the  authors  of  sorrows  and  moans. 
They  are  seven,  thrice  said  they  are  seven. 
Spirit  of  Heaven,  oh,  help  !  Help,  oh,  Spirit  of  Earth  ! 


IV. 


CUSHITES    AND    SEMITES. — EARLY    CHALDEAN    HIS- 
TORY. 

I.  We  have  just  seen  that  the  liymns  and  prayers 
which  compose  the  third  part  of  the  great  Magic 
Collection  really  mark  a  later  and  higher  stage  in 
the  religious  conceptions  of  the  Turanian  settlers  of 
Chaldea,  the  people  of  Shumir  and  Accad.  This 
improvement  was  not  entirely  due  to  a  process  of 
natural  development,  but  in  a  great  measure  to  the 
influence  of  that  other  and  nobler  race,  who  came 
from  the  East.  When  the  priestly  historian  of 
Babylon,  Berosus,  calls  the  older  population  "  men 
of  foreign  race,"  it  is  because  he  belonged  himself 
to  that  second  race,  who  remained  in  the  land,  intro- 
duced their  own  superior  culture,  and  asserted  their 
supremacy  to  the  end  of  Babylon.  The  national 
legends  have  preserved  the  memory  of  this  import- 
ant event,  which  they  represent  as  a  direct  divine 
revelation.  Ea,  the  all-wise  himself,  it  was  believed, 
had  appeared  to  men  and  taught  them  things  hu- 
man and  divine.  Berosus  faithfully  reports  the 
legend,  but  seems  to  have  given  the  God's  name 
"  Ea-Han  "  ("  Ea  the  Fish  ")  under  the  corrupted 

184 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMITES. 


185 


Greek  form  of  Cannes.  This  is  the  narrative,  of 
which  we  already  know  the  first  Hne : 

"  There  was  originally  at  Babylon  a  multitude  of 
men  of  foreign  race  who  had  colonized  Chaldea.  and 
they  lived  without  order,  like  animals.  But  in  the 
first  year"  (meaning  the  first  year  of  the  new  order 
of  things,  the  new  dispensation)  "  there  appeared, 
from  out  of  the  Erythrean  Sea  (the  ancient  Greek 
name  for  the  Persian  Gulf)  where  it  borders  upon 
Babylonia,  an  animal  endowed  with  reason,  who  was 
called  Cannes.  The  whole  body  of  the  animal  was 
that  of  a  fish,  but  under  the  fish's  head  he  had 
another  head,  and  also  feet  below,  growing  out  of 
his  fish's  tail,  similar  to  those  of  a  man  ;  also  human 
speech,  and  his  image  is  preserved  to  this  day. 
This  being  used  to  spend  the  whole  day  amidst 
men,  Avithout  taking  any  food,  and  he  gave  them 
an  insight  into  letters,  and  sciences,  and  every  kind 
of  art  ;  he  taught  them  how  to  found  cities,  to  con- 
struct temples,  to  introduce  laws  and  to  measure 
land  ;  he  showed  them  how  to  sow  seeds  and  gather 
in  crops  ;  in  short,  he  instructed  them  in  everything 
that  softens  manners  and  makes  up  civilization,  so 
that  from  that  time  no  one  has  invented  anything 
new.  Then,  when  the  sun  went  down,  this  mon- 
strous Cannes  used  to  plunge  back  into  the  sea  and 
spend  the  night  in  the  midst  of  the  boundless  waves, 
for  he  was  amphibious." 

2.  The  question,  WJio  w^ere  the  bringers  of  this 
advanced  civilization  ?  has  caused  much  division 
among  the  most  eminent  scholars.  Two  solutions 
are  offered.     Both  being  based  on  many  and  serious 


1 86  THE  STORY  OF  CflALDEA. 

grounds  and  supported  by  illustrious  names,  and 
the  point  being  far  from  settled  yet,  it  is  but  fair  to 
state  them  both.  The  two  greatest  of  German 
assyriologists,  Professors  Eberhard  Schrader  and 
Friedrich  Delitzsch,  and  the  German  school  which 
acknowledges  them  as  leaders,  hold  that  the  bring- 
ers  of  the  new  and  more  perfect  civilization  were 
Semites — descendants  of  Shem,  i.e.,  people  of  the 
same  race  as  the  Hebrews — while  the  late  Francois 
Lenormant  and  his  followers  contend  that  they 
were  Cushites  in  the  first  instance, — i.e.,  belonged 
to  that  important  family  of  nations  which  we  find 
grouped,  in  Chapter  X.  of  Genesis,  under  the  name 
of  Cush,  himself  a  son  of  Ham — and  that  the  Sem- 
itic immigration'  came  second.  As  the  latter  h}'poth- 
esis  puts  forward,  among  other  arguments,  the 
authority  of  the  Biblical  historians,  and  moreover 
involves  the  destinies  of  a  very  numerous  and  vast- 
ly important  branch  of  ancient  humanity,  we  will 
yield  to  it  the  right  of  precedence. 

3.  The  name  "Ham"  signifies  "brown,  dark." 
Therefore,  to  speak  of  certain  nations  as  "  sons  of 
Ham,"  is  the  same  as  to  say  that  they  belonged  to 
"the  Dark  Race."  Yet,  originally,  this  great  sec- 
tion of  Noah's  posterity  was  as  white  of  color  as  the 
other  two.  It  seems  to  have  first  existed  as  a  sepa- 
rate race  in  a  region  not  very  distant  from  the  high 
table-land  of  Central  Asia,  the  probable  first  cradle 
of  mankind.  That  division  of  this  great  section 
which  again  separated  and  became  the  race  of  Cush, 
appears  to  have  been  drawn  southwards  by  reasons 
which  it  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  ascertain.     We 


56. — CANNES. 
(Smith's  "Chaldean  Genesis.") 


1 88  THE  STORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 

still  have  a  memorial  of  its  sojourn  and  passage  in 
the  name  of  the  HiNDU-CuSH,  a  range  of  mountains 
which  must  have  been  to  it  a  barrier  in  the  west, 
and  which  joins  the  western  end  of  the  Himalaya, 
the  mightiest  mountain-chain  in  the  world.  The 
break  between  the  Hindu-Cush  and  the  Himalaya 
forms  a  mountain  pass,  just  at  the  spot  where  the 
river  INDUS  (most  probably  the  PISCHON  of  Gen., 
Ch.  II.)  turns  abruptly  to  the  south,  to  water  the 
rich  plains  of  India.  Through  this  pass,  and  follow- 
ing the  course  of  the  river,  further  Cushite  detach- 
ments must  have  penetrated  into  that  vast  and 
attractive  peninsula,  even  to  the  south  of  it,  where 
they  found  a  population  mostly  belonging  to  the 
Black  branch  of  humanity,  so  persistently  ignored 
by  the  writer  of  Chap.  X.  Hundreds  of  years  spent 
under  a  tropical  clime  and  intermarriage  with  the 
Negro  natives  altered  not  only  the  color  of  their 
skin,  but  also  the  shape  of  their  features.  So  that 
when  Cushite  tribes,  with  the  restless  migratory 
spirit  so  characteristic  of  all  early  ages,  began  to 
work  their  way  back  again  to  the  north,  then  to  the 
west,  along  the  shores  of  the  Indian  Ocean  and  the 
Persian  Gulf,  they  were  both  dark-skinned  and  thick- 
lipped,  with  a  decided  tendency  towards  the  Negro 
type,  lesser  or  greater  according  to  the  degree  of 
mixture  with  the  inferior  race.  That  this  type  was 
foreign  to  them  is  proved  by  the  facility  with  which 
their  features  resumed  the  nobler  cast  of  the  .white 
races  wherever  they  stayed  long  enough  among 
these,  as  was  the  case   in  Chaldea.  in  Arabia,  in  the 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMITES.  1 89 

countries  of  Canaan,  whither  many  of  these  tribes 
wandered  at  various  times. 

4.  Some  Cushite  detachments,  who  reached   the 
straits  of  Bab-el-Mandeb,  crossed  over  into  Africa, 
and  settling  there  amidst  the  barbarous  native  negro 
tribes,  lorded    it    over    them    and  formed  a  nation 
which    was    known    to  its    northern  neighbors,  the 
Egyptians,  to    the    Hebrews,  and    throughout    the 
ancient  East  under  its  own  proper  name  of  CUSH, 
and    whose    outward    characteristics    came,    in    the 
course  of  time,  so  near  to  the  pure  Negro  type  as  to 
be  scarcely  recognizable  from  it.     This  is  the  same 
nation  which,  to  us  moderns,  is  better  known  under 
the  name  of  ETHIOPIANS,  given  to  it  by  the  Greeks, 
as  well  as  to  the  eastern  division  of  the  same  race. 
The  Egyptians  themselves  were  another  branch  of 
the  same  great  section  of  humanity,  represented  in 
the  genealogy  of  Chap.  X.  by  the  name  of  MiZRAlM, 
second  son  of  Ham.     These  must  have  come  from 
the  east  along  the   Persian  Gulf,  then  across  North- 
ern Arabia  and  the  Isthmus  of  Suez.     In  the  color 
and    features    of    the  Egyptians   the    mixture  with 
black  races  is  also  noticeable,  but  not    enough    to 
destroy  the  beauty  and  expressiveness  of  the  orig- 
inal type,  at  all  events  far  less  than  in  their  south- 
ern   neighbors,  the    Ethiopians,  with  whom,  more- 
over, they  were  throughout  on  the  worst  of  terms, 
whom  they  loathed  and  invariably  designated  under 
the  name  of  "  vile  Cush." 

5.  A  third  and  very  important  branch  of  the  Ha- 
mite  family,  the  Canaanites,  after  reaching  the 
Persian  Gulf,  and  probably  sojourning  there   some 


J  go  TJIE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

time,  spread,  not  to  the  south,  but  to  the  west, 
across  the  plains  of  Syria,  across  the  mountain 
chain  of  LEBANON  and  to  the  very  edge  of  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  occupying  all  the  land  which 
later  became  Palestine,  also  to  the  north-west,  as 
far  as  the  mountain  chain  of  Taurus.  This  group 
was  very  numerous,  and  broken  up  into  a  great 
many  peoples,  as  we  can  judge  from  the  list  of  na- 
tions given  in  Chap.  X.  (v.  15-18)  as  "  sons  of  Ca- 
naan." In  its  migrations  over  this  comparatively 
northern  region,  Canaan  found  and  displaced  not 
black  natives,  but  Turanian  nomadic  tribes,  who 
roamed  at  large  over  grassy  wildernesses  and  sandy 
wastes  and  are  possibly  to  be  accounted  as  the  rep- 
resentatives of  that  portion  of  the  race  which  the 
biblical  historian  embodies  in  the  pastoral  names  of 
Jabal  and  Jubal — (Gen.  iv.,  20-22) — "The  father  of 
such  as  dwell  in  tents  and  have  cattle,"  and  "  the 
father  of  all  such  as  handle  the  harp  and  pipe."  In 
which  case  the  Turanian  settlers  and  builders  of  cit- 
ies would  answer  to  Tubalcain,  the  smith  and  arti- 
ficer. The  Canaanites,  therefore,  are  those  among 
the  Hamites  who,  in  point  of  color  and  features, 
have  least  differed  from  their  kindred  white  races, 
though  still  sufficiently  bronzed  to  be  entitled  to 
the  name  of  "  sons  of  Ham,"  i.e.,  "  belonging  to  the 
dark-skinned  race." 

6.  Migrating  races  do  not  traverse  continents  with 
the  same  rapidity  as  marching  armies.  The  prog- 
ress is  slow,  the  stations  are  many.  Every  station 
becomes  a  settlement,  sometimes  the  beginning  of 
a  new  nation — so  many  landmarks  along  the  way. 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMITES. 


191 


And  the  distance  between  the  starting-point  and 
the  furthest  point  reached  by  the  race  is  measured 
not  only  by  thousands  of  miles,  but  also  by  hun- 
dreds and  hundreds  of  years  ;  only  the  space  can  be 
actually  measured,  while  the  time  can  be  computed 
merely  by  conjecture.  The  route  from  the  south  of 
India,  along  the  shore  of  Malabar,  the  Persian  Gulf, 
across  the  Arabian  deserts,  then  down  along  the 
Red  Sea  and  across  the  straits  into  Africa,  is  of  such 
tremendous  length  that  the  settlements  which  the 
Cushite  race  left  scattered  along  it  must  have  been 
more  than  usually  numerous.  According  to  the 
upholders  of  a  Cushite  colonization  of  Chaldea,  one 
important  detachment  appears  to  have  taken  pos- 
session of  the  small  islands  along  the  eastern  shore  of 
the  Persian  Gulf  and  to  have  stayed  there  for  several 
centuries,  probably  choosing  these  island  homes  on 
account  of  their  seclusion  and  safety  from  invasion. 
There,  unmolested  and  undisturbed,  they  could 
develop  a  certain  spirit  of  abstract  speculation  to 
which  their  natural  bent  inclined  them.  They  were 
great  star-gazers  and  calculators — two  tastes  which 
go  well  together,  for  Astronomy  cannot  exist  with- 
out Mathematics.  But  star-gazing  is  also  favorable 
to  dreaming,  and  the  Cushite  islanders  had  time  for 
dreams.  Thoughts  of  heavenly  things  occupied 
them  much  ;  they  worked  out  a  religion  beautiful 
in  many  ways  and  full  of  deep  sense  ;  their  priests 
dwelt  ift  communities  or  colleges,  probably  one  on 
every  island,  and  spent  their  time  not  only  in  scien- 
tific study  and  religious  contemplation,  but  also  in 
the  more  practical  art  of  government,  for  there  do 


192 


THE  SrORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


not  appear  as  yet  to  have  been  any  kings  among 
them. 

7.  But  there  came  a  time  when  tlic  small  is- 
lands were  overcrowded  with  the  increased  popu- 
lation, and  detachments  began  to  cross  the  water 
and  land  at  the  furthest  point  of  the  Gulf,  in  the 
land  of  the  great  rivers.  Here  they  found  a  people 
not  unpractised  in  several  primitive  arts,  and  pos- 
sessed of  some  important  fundamental  inventions — 
writing,  irrigation  by  means  of  canals — but  deplora- 
bly deficient  in  spiritual  development,  and  positively 
barbarous  in  the  presence,  of  an  altogether  higher 
culture.  The  Cushites  rapidly  spread  through  the 
land  of  Shumir  and  Accad,  and  taught  the  people 
with  whom  they  afterwards,  as  usual,  intermarried, 
until  both  formed  but  one  nation— with  this  differ- 
ence, that  towards  the  north  of  Chaldea  the  Cushite 
element  became  predominant,  while  in  the  south 
numbers  remained  on  the  side  of  the  Turanians. 
Whether  this  result  was  attained  altogether  peace- 
fully or  was  preceded  by  a  period  of  resistance  and 
fighting,  we  have  no  means  of  ascertaining.  If 
there  was  such  a  period,  it  cannot  have  lasted  long, 
for  intellect  was  on  the  side  of  the  newcomers,  and 
that  is  a  power  which  soon  wins  the  day.  At  all 
events  the  final  fusion  must  have  been  complete 
and  friendly,  since  the  old  national  legend  reported 
by  Berosus  cleverly  combines  the  two  elements,  by 
attributing  the  part  of  teacher  and  revealei*  to  the 
Shumiro-Accad's  own  favorite  divine  being  Ea, 
while  it  is  not  impossible  that  it  alludes  to  the  com- 
ing   of    the    Cushites    in    making    the    amphibious 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMITES.  jg^ 

Oannes  rise  out  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  "  where  it  bor- 
ders on  Chaldea."  The  legend  goes  on  to  say  that 
Oannes  set  down  his  revelations  in  books  which  he 
consigned  into  the  keeping  of  men,  and  that  several 
more  divine  animals  of  the  same  kind  continued  to 
appear  at  long  intervals.  Who  knows  but  the  latter 
strange  detail  may  have  been  meant  to  allude  fan- 
tastically to  the  arrival  of  successive  Cushite  colo- 
nies? In  the  long  run  of  time,  of  course  all  such 
meaning  would  be  forgotten  and  the  legend  remain 
as  a  miraculous  and  inexplicable  incident. 

8.  It  would  be  vain  to  attempt  to  fix  any  dates 
for  events  v/hich  took  place  in  such  remote  antiquity, 
in  the  absence  of  any  evidence  or  document  that 
might  be  grasped.  Yet,  by  close  study  of  facts,  by 
laborious  and  ingenious  comparing  of  later  texts,  of 
every  scrap  of  evidence  furnished  by  monuments,  of 
information  contained  in  the  fragments  of  Berosus 
and  of  other  writers,  mostly  Greek,  it  has  been  pos- 
sible, with  due  caution,  to  arrive  at  some  approxi- 
mative dates,  which,  after  all,  are  all  that  is  needed 
to  classify  things  in  an  order  intelligible  and  correct 
in  the  main.  Even  should  further  discoveries  and 
researches  arrive  at  more  exact  results,  the  gain  will 
be  comparatively  small.  At  such  a  distance,  differ- 
ences of  a  couple  of  centuries  do  not  matter  much. 
When  we  look  down  a  long  line  of  houses  or  trees, 
the  more  distant  ones  appear  to  run  together,  and 
we  do  not  always  see  where  it  ends — yet  we  can 
perfectly  well  pursue  its  direction.  The  same  with 
the  so-called  double  stars  in  astronomy:  they  are 
stars  which,   though   really  separated  by  thousands 


194 


THE  SrORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 


of  miles,  appear  as  one  on  account  of  the  immense 
distance  between  them  and  our  eye,  and  only  the 
strongest  telescope  lenses  show  them  to  be  separate 
bodies,  though  still  close  together.  Yet  this  is  suffi- 
cient to  assign  them  their  place  so  correctly  on  the 
map  of  the  heavens,  that  they  do  not  disturb  the 
calculations  in  which  they  are  included.  The  same 
kind  of  perspective  applies  to  the  history  of  remote 
antiquity.  As  the  gloom  which  has  covered  it  so 
long  slowly  rolls  back  before  the  light  of  scientific 
research,  we  begin  to  discern  outlines  and  landmarks, 
at  first  so  dim  and  wavering  as  rather  to  mislead 
than  to  instruct  ;  but  soon  the  searcher's  eye,  sharp- 
ened by  practice,  fixes  them  sufficiently  to  bring 
them  into  connection  with  the  later  and  more  fully 
illumined  portions  of  the  eternally  unrolling  pict- 
ure. Chance,  to  which  all  discoverers  are  so  much 
indebted,  frequently  supplies  such  a  landmark,  and 
now  and  then  one  so  firm  and  distinct  as  to  become 
a  trustworthy  centre  for  a  whole  group. 

9.  The  annals  of  the  Assyrian  king  Asshurbani- 
pal  (the  founder  of  the  great  Library  at  Nineveh) 
have  established  beyond  a  doubt  the  first  positive 
date  that  has  been  secured  for  the  History  of  Chal- 
dea.  That  king  was  for  a  long  time  at  war  with  the 
neighboring  kingdom  of  Elam,  and  ended  by  con- 
quering and  destroying  its  capital,  Shushan  (Susa), 
after  carrying  away  all  the  riches  from  the  royal 
palace  and  all  the  statues  from  the  great  temple. 
This  happened  in  the  year  645  B.C.  In  the  in- 
scriptions in  which  he  records  this  event,  the  king 
informs  us  that  in  that  temple  he  found  a  statue  of 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMITES.  jgc 

the  Chaldean  goddess  Nana,  which  had  been  car- 
ried away  from  her  own  temple  in  the  city  of  Ur- 
UKH  i^Erech,  now  Warka)  by  a  king  of  Elam  of  the 
name  of  Khudur-Nankhundi,  who  invaded  the 
land  of  Accad  1635  years  before,  and  that  he,  As- 
shurbanipal,  by  the  goddess's  own  express  com- 
mand, took  her  from  where  she  had  dwelt  in  Elam, 
"  a  place  not  appointed  her,"  and  reinstated  her  in 
her  own  sanctuary  "  which  she  had  delighted  in." 
1635  added  to  645  make  2280,  a  date  not  to  be  dis- 
puted. Now  if  a  successful  Elamite  invasion  in 
2280  found  in  Chaldea  famous  sanctuaries  to  dese- 
crate, the  religion  to  which  these  sanctuaries  be- 
longed, that  of  the  Cushite,  or  Semitic  colonists, 
must  have  been  established  in  the  country  already 
for  several,  if  not  many,  centuries.  Indeed,  quite 
recent  discoveries  show  that  it  had  been  so  consid- 
erably over  a  thousand  years,  so  that  we  cannot 
possibly  accept  a  date  later  than  4000  B.C.  for  the 
foreign  immigration.  The  Shumiro-Accadian  cul- 
ture was  too  firmly  rooted  then  and  too  completely 
worked  out — as  far  as  it  went — to  allow  less  than 
about  1000  years  for  its  establishment.  This  takes 
us  as  far  back  as  5000  B.C.— a  pretty  respectable  fig- 
ure, especially  when  we  think  of  the  vista  of  time 
which  opens  behind  it,  and  for  which  calculation 
fairly  fails  us.  For  if  the  Turanian  settlers  brought 
the  rudiments  of  that  culture  from  the  highlands  of 
Elam,  how  long  had  they  sojourned  there  before 
they  descended  into  the  plains?  And  how  long  had 
it  taken  them  to  reach  that  station   on   their   way 


196 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


from  the  race's  mountain  home  in   the  far  Nortli- 
east,  in  the  Altai  valleys  ? 

10.  However  that  may  be,  5000  B.C.  is  a  moderate 
and  probable  date.  But  ancient  nations  were  not 
content  with  such,  when  they  tried  to  locate  and 
classify  their  own  beginnings.  These  being  neces- 
sarily obscure  and  only  vaguely  shadowed  out  in 
traditions  which  gained  in  fancifulness  and  lost  in 
probability  with  every  succeeding  generation  that 
received  them  and  handed  them  down  to  the  ne.xt, 
they  loved  to  magnify  them  by  enshrouding  them 
in  the  mystery  of  innumerable  ages.  The  more  ap- 
palling the  figures,  the  greater  the  glory.  Thus  we 
gather  from  some  fragments  of  Berosus  that,  ac- 
cording to  the  national  Chaldean  tradition,  there 
was  an  interval  of  over  259,000  years  between  the 
first  appearance  of  Oannes  and  the  first  king.  Then 
come  ten  successive  kings,  each  of  wliom  reigns  a 
no  less  extravagant  number  of  years  (one  36,000, 
another  43,000,  even  64,000;  10,800  being  the  most 
modest  figure),  till  the  aggregate  of  all  these  differ- 
ent periods  makes  up  the  pretty  sum  total  of  691,- 
200  years,  supposed  to  have  elapsed  from  the  first 
appearance  of  Oannes  to  the  Deluge.  It  is  so  im- 
possible to  imagine  so  prodigious  a  number  of  years 
or  couple  with  it  anything  at  all  real,  that  we  might 
just  as  well  substitute  for  such  a  figure  the  simpler 
"  very,  very  long  ago,"  or  still  better,  the  approved 
fairy  tale  beginning,  "  There  was  once  upon  a 
time.  .  .  ."  It  conveys  quite  as  definite  a  notion, 
and  would,  in  such  a  case,  be  the  more  appropriate, 


CUSHITES  Ai\D  SEMITES.  jgy 

that  all  a  nation's  most  marvellous  traditions,  most 
fabulous  legends,  are  naturally  placed  in  those  stu- 
pendously remote  ages  which  no  record  could  reach, 
no  experience  control.  Although  these  traditions 
and  legends  generally  had  a  certain  body  of  actual 
truth  and  dimly  remembered  fact  in  them,  which 
might  still  be  apparent  to  the  learned  and  the  cul- 
tivated few,  the  ignorant  masses  of  the  people  swal- 
lowed the  thing  whole,  as  real  history,  and  found 
things  acknowledged  as  impossible  easy  to  believe, 
for  the  simple  reason  that  "  it  was  so  very  long 
ago  !  "  A  Chaldean  of  Alexander's  time  certainly 
did  not  expect  to  meet  a  divine  Man-Fish  in  his 
walks  along  the  sea-shore,  but — there  was  no  know- 
ing what  might  or  might  not  have  happened  seven 
hundred  thousand  years  ago  !  In  the  legend  of  the 
six  successive  apparitions  under  the  first  ten  long- 
lived  kings,  he  would  not  have  descried  the  simple 
sense  so  lucidly  set  forth  by  Mr.  Maspero,  one  of 
the  most  distinguished  of  French  Orientalists : — 
"  The  times  preceding  the  Deluge  represented  an 
experimental  period,  during  which  mankind,  being 
as  yet  barbarous,  had  need  of  divine  assistance  to 
overcome  the  difficulties  with  which  it  was  sur- 
rounded. Those  times  were  filled  up  with  six  man- 
ifestations of  the  deity,  doubtless  answering  to  the 
number  of  sacred  books  in  which  the  priests  saw 
the  most  complete  expression  of  revealed  law."* 
This  presents  another  and  more  probable  explana- 
tion of  the  legend  than  the  one  suggested  above, 

*  "  Histoire  Ancienne  des  Peuples  de  1' Orient,"  1878,  p.  160. 


198 


THE  STORY  OF  CIIALDF.A. 


(end  of  §  7) ;  but  there  is  no  more  actual  proof  of 
the  one  than  of  the  other  being  the  correct  one. 

11.  If  Chaldea  was  in  after  times  a  battle-ground 
of  nations,  it  was  in  the  beginning  a  very  nursery 
and  hive  of  peoples.  The  various  races  in  their 
migrations  must  necessarily  have  been  attracted 
and  arrested  by  the  exceeding  fertility  of  its  soil, 
which  it  is  said,  in  the  times  of  its  highest  pros- 
perity and  under  proper  conditions  of  irrigation, 
yielded  two  hundredfold  return  for  the  grain  it  re- 
ceived. Settlement  must  have  followed  settlement 
in  rapid  succession.  But  the  nomadic  clement  was 
for  a  long  time  still  very  prevalent,  and  side  by  side 
with  the  builders  of  cities  and  tillers  of  fields,  shep- 
herd tribes  roamed  peacefully  over  the  face  of  the 
land,  tolerated  and  unmolested  by  the  permanent 
population,  with  which  they  mixed  but  warily, 
occasionally  settling  down  temporarily,  and  shifting 
their  settlements  as  safety  or  advantage  required  it, 
— or  wandering  off  altogether  from  that  common 
halting-place,  to  the  north,  and  west,  and  south- 
west. This  makes  it  very  plain  why  Chaldea  is 
given  as  the  land  where  the  tongues  became  con- 
fused and  the  second  separation  of  races  took 
place. 

12.  Of  those  principally  nomadic  tribes  the  great- 
est part  did  not  belong,  like  the  Cushites  or  Canaan- 
ites,  to  the  descendants  of  Ham,  "the  Dark,"  but  to 
those  of  SliEM,  whose  name,  signifying  "  Glory,  Re- 
nown," stamps  him  as  the  eponymous  ancestor  of 
that  race  which  has  always  firmly  believed  itself  to 
be  the  chosen   one  of  God.     They  were   Semites. 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMITES. 


199 


When  they  arrived  on  the  plains  of  Chaldea,  they 
were  inferior  in  civilization  to  the  people  among 
whom  they  came  to  dwell.  They  knew  nothing  of 
city  arts  and  had  all  to  learn.  They  did  learn,  for 
superior  culture  always  asserts  its  power, — even  to 
the  language  of  the  Cushite  settlers,  which  the 
latter  were  rapidly  substituting  for  the  rude  and 
poor  Turanian  idiom  of  Shumir  and  Accad,  This 
language,  or  rather  various  dialects  of  it,  were  com- 
mon to  most  Hamitic  and  Semitic  tribes,  among 
whom  that  from  which  the  Hebrews  sprang  brought 
it  to  its  greatest  perfection.  The  others  worked  it 
into  different  kindred  dialects — the  Assyrian,  the 
Aramaic  or  Syrian,  the  Arabic — according  to  their 
several  peculiarities.  The  Phoenicians  of  the  sea- 
shore, and  all  the  Canaanite  nations,  also  spoke 
languages  belonging  to  the  same  family,  and  there- 
fore classed  among  the  so-called  Semitic  tongues. 
Thus  it  has  come  to  pass  that  philology, — or  the 
Science  of  Languages, — adopted  a  wrong  name  for 
that  entire  group,  calling  the  languages  belonging 
to  rt,  "  Semitic,"  while,  in  reality,  they  are  originally 
"  Hamitic."  The  reason  is  that  the  Hamitic  ori- 
gin of  those  important  languages  which  have  been 
called  Semitic  these  hundred  years  had  not  been 
discovered  until  very  lately,  and  to  change  the  name 
now  would  produce  considerable  confusion. 

13.  Most  of  the  Semitic  tribes  who  dwelt  in 
Chaldea  adopted  not  only  the  Cushite  language, 
but  the  Cushite  culture  and  religion.  Asshur 
carried  all  three  northward,  where  the  Assyrian 
kingdom   arose   out  of  a  few   Babylonian   colonies, 


200  THE  STORY  OF  ClIALDEA. 

and  Aram  westward  to  the  land  which  was  after- 
wards called  Southern  Syria,  and  where  the  great 
city  of  Damascus  long  flourished  and  still  exists. 
But  there  was  one  tribe  of  higher  spiritual  gifts 
than  the  others.  It  was  not  numerous,  for  through 
many  generations  it  consisted  of  only  one  great 
family  governed  by  its  own  eldest  chief  or  patri- 
arch. It  is  true  that  such  a  family,  with  the  patri- 
arch's own  children  and  children's  children,  its 
wealth  of  horses,  camels,  flocks  of  sheep,  its  host  of 
servants  and  slaves,  male  and  female,  represented 
quite  a  respectable  force  ;  Abraham  could  muster 
three  hundred  eighteen  armed  and  trained  servants 
who  had  been  born  in  his  own  household.  This 
particular  tribe  seems  to  have  wandered  for  some 
time  on  the  outskirts  of  Chaldea  and  in  the  land 
itself,  as  indicated  by  the  name  given  to  its  ep- 
onym  in  Chap.  X. :  Arphaxad  (more  correctly 
Arphakshad),  corrupted  from  Arepii-Kasdim, 
which  means,  "  bordering  on  the  Chaldeans,"  or  per- 
haps "  boundaries  " — in  the  sense  of  "  land  " — of  the 
Chaldeans.  Generation  after  generation  pushedfur- 
ther  westward,  traversed  the  land  of  Shinar,  crossed 
the  Euphrates  and  reached  the  city  of  Ur,  in  or  near 
which  the  tribe  dwelt  many  years. 

14.  Ur  was  then  the  greatest  city  of  Southern 
Chaldea.  The  earliest  known  kings  of  Shumir  re- 
sided in  it,  and  besides  that,  it  was  the  principal 
commercial  mart  of  the  country.  For,  strange  as  it 
may  appear  when  we  look  on  a  modern  map,  Ur, 
the  ruins  of  which  are  now  150  miles  from  the  sea, 
was  then   a  maritime    city,   with    harbor  and  ship 


CUSHITES  AXD  SEMITES.  201 

docks.  The  waters  of  the  Guif  reached  much  fur- 
ther inland  than  they  do  now.  There  was  then  a 
distance  of  many  miles  between  the  mouths  of  the 
Tigris  and  Euphrates,  and  Ur  hiy  very  near  the 
mouth  of  the  latter  river.  Like  all  commercial  and 
maritime  cities,  it  was  the  resort  not  only  of  all  the 
different  races  which  dwelt  in  the  land  itself,  but 
also  of  foreign  traders.  The  active  intellectual  life 
of  a  capital,  too,  which  was  at  the  same  time  a 
great  religious  centre  and  the  seat  of  a  powerful 
priesthood,  must  of  necessity  have  favored  inter- 
change of  ideas,  and  have  exerted  an  influence  on 
that  Semitic  tribe  of  whom  the  Bible  tells  us  that 
it  "  went  forth  from  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  to  go  into 
the  land  of  Canaan,"  led  by  the  patriarch  Terah  and 
his  son  Abraham  (Genesis  xi.  31).  The  historian  of 
Genesis  here,  as  throughout  the  narrative,  does  not 
m.ention  any  date  whatever  for  the  event  he  relates  ; 
nor  does  he  hint  at  the  cause  of  this  removal.  On 
the  first  ot  these  points  the  study  of  Chaldean  cune- 
iform monuments  throws  considerable  light,  while 
the  latter  does  not  admit  of  more  than  guesses — 
of  which  something  hereafter. 

15.  Such  is  a  broad  and  cursory  outline  of  the 
theory  according  to  which  Cushite  immigrations 
preceded  the  arrival  of  the  Semites  in  the  land  of 
Shumir  and  Accad.  Those  who  uphold  it  give 
several  reasons  for  their  opinion,  such  as  that  the 
Bible  several  times  mentions  a  Cush  located  in  the 
East  and  evidently  different  from  the  Cush  which 
has  been  identified  as  Ethiopia  ;  that,  in  Chap.  X. 
of    Genesis    (8-12),    Nimrod,    the    legendary    hero, 


202  THE  STORY  OF  CHAI.DEA. 

whose  empire  at  first  was  in  "  the  land  of  Shinar," 
and  who  is  said  to  have  "  gone  forth  out  of  that 
land  into  Assyria,"  is  called  a  son  of  Cush  ;  that 
the  most  ancient  Greek  poets  knew  of  "  Ethio- 
pians"  in  the  far  East  as  opposed  to  those  of  the 
South — and  several  more.  Those  scholars  who 
oppose  this  theory  dismiss  it  wholesale.  They  will 
not  admit  the  existence  of  a  Cushite  element  or 
migration  in  the  East  at  all,  and  put  down  the 
expressions  in  the  Bible  as  simple  mistakes,  either 
of  the  writers  or  copyists.  According  to  them, 
there  was  only  one  immigration  in  the  land  of 
Shumir  and  Accad,  that  of  the  Semites,  achieved 
through  many  ages  and  in  numerous  instalments. 
The  language  which  superseded  the  ancient  Shu- 
miro-Accadian  idiom  is  to  them  a  Semitic  one  in 
the  directest  and  most  exclusive  sense;  the  culture 
grafted  on  that  of  the  earlier  population  is  by  them 
called  purely  "  Semitic  ;  "  while  their  opponents  fre- 
quently use  the  compound  designation  of  "Cushito- 
Semitic,"  to  indicate  the  two  distinct  elements  of 
which,  to  them,  it  appears  composed.  It  must  be 
owned  that  the  anti-Cushite  opinion  is  gaining 
ground.  Yet  the  Cushite  theory  cannot  be  con- 
sidered as  disposed  of,  only  "  not  proven," — or  not 
sufficiently  so,  and  therefore  in  abeyance  and  fallen 
into  some  disfavor.  With  this  proviso  we  shall 
adopt  the  word  "  Semitic,"  as  the  simpler  and  more 
generally  used. 

i6.  It  is  only  with  the  rise  of  Semitic  culture 
in  Southern  Mesopotamia  that  we  enter  on  a 
period  which,   however  remote,   misty,  and   full    of 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMITES. 


203 


blanks,  may  still  be  called,  in  a  measure,  "  histor- 
ical," because  there  is  a  certain  number  of  facts, 
of  which  contemporary  monuments  give  positive 
evidence.  True,  the  connection  between  those 
facts  is  often  not  apparent  ;  their  causes  and  effects 
are  frequently  not  to  be  made  out  save  by  more 
or  less  daring  conjectures  ;  still  there  are  numerous 
landmarks  of  proven  fact,  and  with  these  real  his- 
tory begins.  No  matter  if  broad  gaps  have  to 
be  left  open  or  temporarily  filled  with  guesses. 
New  discoveries  are  almost  daily  turning  up,  in- 
scriptions, texts,  which  unexpectedly  here  supply 
a  missing  link,  there  confirm  or  demolish  a  con- 
jecture, establish  or  correct  dates  which  had  long 
been  puzzles  or  suggested  on  insufificient  founda- 
tions. In  short,  details  may  be  supplied  as  yet 
brokenly  and  sparingly,  but  the  general  outline 
of  the  condition  of  Chaldea  may  be  made  out  as 
far  back  as  forty  centuries  before  Christ. 

17.  Of  one  thing  there  can  be  no  doubt :  that 
our  earliest  glimpse  of  the  political  condition  of 
Chaldea  shows  us  the  country  divided  into  nu- 
merous small  states,  each  headed  by  a  great  city, 
made  famous  and  powerful  by  the  sanctuary  or 
temple  of  some  particular  deity,  and  ruled  by  a 
patcsi,  a  title  which  is  now  thought  to  mean  priest- 
king,  i.e.,  priest  and  king  in  one.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  the  beginning  of  the  city  was 
everywhere  the  temple,  with  its  college  of  minister- 
ing priests,  and  that  the  surrounding  settlement 
was  gradually  formed  by  pilgrims  and  worshippers. 
That    royalty  developed    out  of  the    priesthood   is 


2QA  THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

also  more  than  probable,  and  consequently  must 
have  been,  in  its  first  stage,  a  form  of  priestly  rule, 
and,  in  a  great  measure,  subordinate  to  priestly 
influence.  There  comes  a  time  when  for  the  title 
of  patcsi  is  substituted  that  of  "king"  simply — a 
change  which  very  possibly  indicates  the  assump- 
tion by  the  kings  of  a  more  independent  attitude 
towards  the  class  from  which  their  power  originally 
sprang.  It  is  noticeable  that  the  distinction  be- 
tween the  Semitic  newcomers  and  the  indigenous 
Shumiro-Accadians  continues  long  to  be  traceable 
in  the  names  of  the  royal  temple-builders,  even 
after  the  new  Semitic  idiom,  which  we  call  the 
Assyrian,  had  entirely  ousted  the  old  language — a 
process  which  must  have  taken  considerable  time, 
for  it  appears,  and  indeed  stands  to  reason,  that  the 
newcomers,  in  order  to  secure  the  wished  for  in- 
fluence and  propagate  their  own  culture,  at  first  not 
only  learned  to  understand  but  actually  used  them- 
selves the  language  of  the  people  among  whom 
they  came,  at  least  in  their  public  documents. 
This  it  is  that  explains  the  fact  that  so  many  in- 
scriptions and  tablets,  while  written  in  the  dialect 
of  Shumir  or  Accad,  are  Semitic  in  spirit  and  in 
the  grade  of  culture  they  betray.  Furthermore, 
even  superficial  observation  shows  that  the  old 
language  and  the  old  names  survi\-e  longest  in 
Shumir, — the  South.  From  this  fact  it  is  to  be 
inferred  with  little  chance  of  mistake  that  the 
North, — the  land  of  Accad, — was  earlier  Semitized, 
that  the  Semitic  immigrants  established  their  first 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMITES. 


205 


headquarters  in  that  part  of  the  country,  that  their 
power  and  influence  thence  spread  to  the  South. 

18.  Fully  in  accordance  with  these  indications, 
the  first  grand  historical  figure  that  meets  us  at  the 
threshold  of  Chaldean  history,  dim  with  the  mists 
of  ages  and  fabulous  traditions,  yet  unmistakably 
real,  is  that  of  the  Semite  Sharrukin,  king  of  Ac- 
cad — or  Agade,  as  the  great  Northern  city  came  to 
be  called — more  generally  known  in  history  under 
the  corrupt  modern  reading  of  Sargon,  and  called 
Sargon  I.,  "  the  First,"  to  distinguish  him  from  a  very 
famous  Assyrian  monarch  of  the  same  name  who 
reigned  many  centuries  later.  As  to  the  city  of 
Agade,  it  is  no  other  than  the  city  of  Accad  men- 
tioned in  Genesis  x.,  10.  It  was  situated  close  to 
the  Euphrates  on  a  wide  canal  just  opposite  Sip- 
par,  so  that  in  time  the  two  cities  came  to  be  con- 
sidered as  one  double  city,  and  the  Hebrews  always 
called  it  "the  two  Sippars " — Sepharvaim,  which 
is  often  spoken  of  in  the  Bible.  It  was  there  that 
Sharrukin  established  his  rule,  and  a  statue  was 
afterwards  raised  to  him  there,  the  inscription  on 
which,  making  him  speak,  as  usual,  in  the  first  per- 
son, begins  with  the  proud  declaration  :  "  Sharrukin, 
the  mighty  king,  the  king  of  Agade,  am  I."  Yet, 
although  his  reforms  and  conquests  were  of  lasting 
importance,  and  himself  remained  one  of  the  favorite 
heroes  of  Chaldean  tradition,  he  appears  to  have  been 
an  adventurer  and  usurper.  Perhaps  he  was,  for  this 
very  reason,  all  the  dearer  to  the  popular  fancy, 
which,  in  the  absence  of  positive  facts  concerning 
his   birth  and   origin,  wove  around   them   a  halo  of 


2o6  THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

romance,  and  told  of  him  a  story  which  must  be 
nearly  as  old  as  mankind,  for  it  has  been  told  over 
and  over  again,  in  different  countries  and  ages,  of 
a  great  many  famous  kings  and  heroes.  This  of 
Sharrukin  is  the  oldest  known  version  of  it,  and  the 
inscription  on  his  statue  puts  it  into  the  king's  own 
mouth.  It  makes  him  say  that  he  knew  not  his 
father,  and  that  his  mother,  a  princess,  gave  him 
birth  in  a  hiding-place,  (or  "  an  inaccessible  place  "), 
near  the  Euphrates,  but  that  his  family  were  the 
rulers  of  the  land.  "  She  placed  me  in  a  basket  of 
rushes,"  the  king  is  further  made  to  say  ;  "  with 
bitumen  the  door  of  my  ark  she  closed.  She 
launched  me  on  the  river,  which  drowned  mc  not. 
The  river  bore  me  along  ;  to  Akki,  the  water-carrier, 
it  brought  me.  Akki,  the  water-carrier,  in  the  ten- 
derness of  his  heart  lifted  me  up.  Akki,  the  water- 
carrier,  as  his  own  child,  brought  me  up.  Akki,  the 
water-carrier,  made  me  his  gardener.  And  in  my 
gardenership  the  goddess  Ishtar  loved  me." 

19.  Whatever  his  origin  and  however  he  came 
by  the  royal  power,  Sargon  was  a  great  monarch. 
It  is  said  that  he  undertook  successful  expeditions 
into  Syria,  and  a  campaign  into  Elam  ;  that  with 
captives  of  the  conquered  races  he  partly  peopled 
his  new  capital,  Agade,  where  he  built  a  palace  and 
a  magnificent  temple ;  that  on  one  occasion  he  was 
absent  three  years,  during  which  time  he  advanced 
to  the  very  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  which  he 
calls  "  the  sea  of  the  setting  sun,"  and  where  he  left 
memorial  records  of  his  deeds,  and  returned  home 
in  triumph,  bringing  with  him  immense  spoils.    The 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMITES. 


207 


inscription  contains  only  the  following  very  moder- 
ate mention  of  his  military  career :  "  For  forty-five 
years  the  kingdom  I  have  ruled.  And  the  black- 
head race  (Accadian)  I  have  governed.     In  multi- 


o    < 


I      o 


tudes  of  bronze  chariots  I  rode  over  rugged  lands. 
I   governed  the  upper  countries.      Three  times  to 
the  coast  of  the  (Persian)  sea  I  advanced.  .   .  ."  * 
20.  This  was  not  the  man  to  bow  himself  before 


*  Translation  of  Professor  A.  H.  Sayce. 


2o8  THE  STORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 

priestly  power.  Yet  he  was  religious  and  had  no 
idea  of  encroaching  on  the  priesthood's  rights  in 
their  own  proper  province.  On  the  contrary,  he 
assisted  them  in  completing  and  bringing  into  defi- 
nite shape  a  vast  religious  reform  which  had  been 
slowly  working  itself  out  ever  since  the  Semitic  and 
Accadian  elements  began  to  mix  in  matters  of  spir- 
itual speculation  and  worship.  What  was  the  result 
of  the  amalgamation  will  form  the  subject  of  the 
next  chapter.  Suffice  it  here  to  say  that  the  relig- 
ion of  Chaldea  in  the  systematic  combination  which 
it  assumed  under  Sharrukin  of  Agade  remained 
fixed  forever,  and  when  Babylonian  religion  is 
spoken  of,  it  is  that  which  is  understood  by  that 
name.  The  great  theological  work  demanded  a  lit- 
erary undertaking  no  less  great.  The  incantations 
and  magic  forms  of  the  first,  purely  Turanian  period 
had  to  be  collected  and  put  in  order,  as  well  as  the 
hymns  and  prayers  of  the  second  period,  composed 
under  the  influence  of  a  higher  and  more  spiritual 
religious  feeling.  But  all  this  literature  was  in  the 
language  of  the  older  population,  while  the  ruling 
class — the  royal  houses  and  the  priesthood — were 
becoming  almost  exclusively  Semitic.  It  was  nec- 
essary, therefore,  that  they  should  study  the  old 
language  and  learn  it  so  thoroughly  as  not  only 
to  understand  and  read  it,  but  to  be  able  to  use  it, 
in  speaking  and  writing.  For  that  purpose  Sargon 
not  only  ordered  the  ancient  texts,  when  collected 
and  sorted,  to  be  copied  on  clay  tablets  with  the 
translation — either  between  the  lines,  or  on  opposite 
columns — into  the  now  generally  used  modern  Sem- 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMIIES. 


209 


itic  language,  which  we  may  as  well  begin  to  call  by 
its  usual  name,  Assyrian,  but  gave  directions  for 
the  compilation  of  grammars  and  vocabularies, — the 
very  works  which  have  enabled  the  scholars  of  the 
present  day  to  arrive  at  the  understanding  of  that 
prodigiously  ancient  tongue  which,  without  such 
assistance,  must  have  remained  a  sealed  book  for- 
ever. 

21.  Such  is  the  origin  of  the  great  collection  in 
three  books  and  two  hundred  tablets,  the  contents 
of  which  made  the  subject  of  the  preceding  chapter. 
To  this  must  be  added  another  great  work,  in  sev- 
enty tablets,  in  Assyrian,  on  astrology,  i.e.,  the  sup- 
posed influence  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  according 
to  their  positions  and  conjunctions,  on  the  fate  of 
nations  and  individuals  and  on  the  course  of  things 
on  earth  generally — an  influence  which  was  firmly 
believed  in ;  and  probably  yet  a  third  work,  on 
omens,  prodigies  and  divination.  To  carry  out  these 
extensive  literary  labors,  to  treasure  the  results 
worthily  and  safely,  Sargon  either  founded  or 
greatly  enlarged  the  library  of  the  priestly  college 
at  Urukh  (Erech),  so  that  this  city  came  to  be 
called  "  the  City  of  Books."  This  repository  be- 
came the  most  important  one  in  all  Chaldea,  and 
when,  fourteen  centuries  later,  the  Assyrian  Asshur- 
banipal  sent  his  scribes  all  over  the  country,  to  col- 
lect copies  of  the  ancient,  sacred  and  scientific  texts 
for  his  own  royal  library  at  Nineveh,  it  was  at  Erech 
that  they  gathered  their  most  abundant  harvest, 
being  specially  favored  there  by  the  priests,  who 
were  on  excellent  terms  with  the  king  after  he  had 


2  I o  THE  STOK  \ '  OF  CHALDEA. 

brought  back  from  Shushan  and  restored  to  them 
the  statue  of  their  goddess  Nana.  The  work  begun, 
and  in  a  great  measure  carried  out  by  Sargon,  was 
completed  by  his  son  Naram-Sin,  who  seems  to 
have  worthily  followed  in  his  father's  footsteps,  as 
a  conqueror,  as  a  statesman,  as  a  religious  reformer 
and  patron  of  sacerdotal  science  and  literature,  and 
also  as  a  builder. 

22.  It  is  just  possible  that  Sargon's  collection  may 
have  also  comprised  literature  of  a  lighter  nature 
than  those  ponderous  works  on  magic  and  astrology. 
At  least,  a  work  on  agriculture  has  been  found,  which 
is  thought  to  have  been  compiled  for  the  same  king's 
library,*  and  which  contains  bits  of  popular  poe- 
try (maxims,  riddles,  short  peasant  songs)  of  the 
kind  that  is  now  called  "  folk-lore."  Of  the  correct- 
ness of  the  supposition  there  is,  as  yet,  no  absolute 
proof,  but  as  some  of  these  fragments,  of  which  un- 
fortunately but  few  could  be  recovered,  arc  very 
interesting  and  pretty  in  their  way,  this  is  perhaps 
the  best  place  to  insert  them.  The  following  four 
may  be  called  "  Maxims,"  and  the  first  is  singularly 
pithy  and  powerfully  expressed. 

1.  Like  an  oven  that  is  old 

Against  thy  foes  be  hard  and  strong. 

2.  May  he  suffer  vengeance, 
May  it  be  returned  to  him, 
Who  gives  the  provocation. 

3.  If  evil  thou  doest, 

To  the  everlasting  sea 
Thou  shalt  surely  go. 

*  A.  H.  Sayce. 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMITES.  21  1 

4.  Thou  wentest,  thou  spoiledst 
The  land  of  the  foe, 
For  the  foe  came  and  spoiled 
Thy  land,  even  thine. 

23.  It  will  be  noticed  that  No.  3  alone  expresses 
moral  feeling  of  a  high  standard,  and  is  distinctively 
Semitic  in  spirit,  the  same  spirit  which  is  expressed 
in  a  loftier  and  purely  religious  vein,  and  a  more  po- 
etical form  in  one  of  the  "Penitential  Psalms," 
where  it  says  : 

Whoso  fears  not  his  god — will  be  cut  off  even  like  a  reed. 
Whoso  honors  not  the  goddess — his  bodily  strength  shall  waste  away ; 
Like  a  star  of  heaven,  his  light  shall  wane ;  like  waters  of  the  night 
he  shall  disappear. 

Some  fragments  can  be  well  imagined  as  being 
sung  by  the  peasant  at  work  to  his  ploughing  team, 
in  whose  person  he  sometimes  speaks  : 

5.  A  heifer  am  I, — to  the  cow  I  am  yoked  ; 

The  plough  handle  is  strong — lift  it  up  !  lift  it  up ! 

6.  My  knees  are  marching — my  feet  are  not  resting; 
With  no  wealth  of  thy  own — grain  thou  makest  for  me.* 

24.  A  great  deal  of  additional  interest  in  King 
Sargon  of  Agade  has  lately  been  excited  by  an  ex- 
traordinary discovery  connected  with  him  and  which 
produced  a  startling  revolution  in  the  hitherto 
accepted  Chaldean  chronology.  This  question  of 
dates  is  always  a  most  intricate  and  puzzling  one  in 
dealing  with  ancient  Oriental  nations,  because  they 
did  not  date  their  years  from  some  particular  event, 

*  Translated   by    A.  H.  Sayce,  in  his  paper    "Babylonian  Folk- 
lore" in  the  "  Folk-lor^  Journal,"  Vol.  I.,  Jan.,  1883. 


2 1 2  THE  S  TO  A'  V  OF  CHA  I.DEA . 

as  we  do,  and  as  did  the  Mohammedans,  the  Greeks 
and  the  Romans.  In  the  inscriptions  things  are  said 
to  have  happened  in  the  year  so-and-so  of  such  a 
king's  reign.  Where  to  place  that  king  is  the  ne.xt 
question — unanswerable,  unless,  as  fortunately  is 
mostly  the  case,  some  clue  is  supplied,  to  borrow 
a  legal  term,  by  circumstantial  evidence.  Thus,  if 
an  eclipse  is  mentioned,  the  time  can  easily  be  de- 
termined by  the  help  of  astronomy,  which  can  cal- 
culate backward  as  well  as  forward.  Or  else,  an 
event  or  a  person  belonging  to  another  country  is 
alluded  to,  and  if  they  are  known  to  us  from  other 
sources,  that  is  a  great  help.  Such  a  coincidence 
(which  is  called  a  SYNCHRONISM)  is  most  valuable, 
and  dates  established  by  synchronisms  are  generally 
reliable.  Then,  luckily  for  us,  Assyrian  and  Baby- 
lonian kings  of  a  late  period,  whose  dates  are  fixed 
and  proved  beyond  a  doubt,  were  much  in  the  habit, 
in  their  historical  inscriptions,  of  mentioning  events 
that  had  taken  place  before  their  time  and  specify- 
ing the  number  of  years  elapsed,  often  also  the  king 
under  whose  reign  the  event,  whatever  it  was,  had 
taken  place.  This  is  the  most  precious  clue  of  all, 
as  it  is  infallible,  and  besides  ascertaining  one 
point,  gives  a  firm  foothold,  whereby  to  arrive  at 
many  others.  The  famous  memorandum  of  As- 
shurbanipal,  already  so  often  referred  to,  about  the 
carrying  away  of  the  goddess  Nana,  (i.e.,  her  statue) 
from  her  temple  at  Erech  is  evidence  of  this  kind. 
Any  dates  suggested  without  any  of  these  clues  as 
basis  are  of  necessity  untrustworthy,  and  no  true 
scholar  dreams  of  offering  any  such  date,  except  as  a 


CUSHITES  A  i\  'D  SEMI  TES.  2 1 3 

temporary  suggestion,  awaiting  confirmation  or  abo- 
lition from  subsequent  researches.  So  it  was  with 
Sargon  of  Agade.  There  was  no  positive  indica- 
tion of  the  time  at  which  he  lived,  except  that  he 
could  not  possibly  have  lived  later  than  2000  B.C. 
Scholars  therefore  agreed  to  assign  that  date  to  him, 
approximatively  —  a  little  more  or  less  —  thinking 
they  could  not  go  very  far  wrong  in  so  doing.  Great 
therefore  was  the  commotion  produced  by  the  dis- 
covery of  a  cylinder  of  Nabonidus,  the  last  king  of 
Babylon  (whose  date  is  550  B.C.),  wherein  he  speaks 
of  repairs  he  made  in  the  great  Sun-temple  at  Sip- 
para,  and  declares  having  dug  deep  in  its  foundations 
for  the  cylinders  of  the  founder,  thus  describing  his 
success:  "  Shamash  (the  Sun-god),  the  great  lord 
.  .  .  suffered  me  to  behold  the  foundation-cylin- 
der of  Naram-Sin,  the  son  of  Sharrukin,  which  for 
thrice  thousand  and  twice  hundred  years  none  of 
the  kings  that  lived  before  me  had  seen."  The 
simple  addition  3200  +550  gives  3750  B.C.  as  the 
date  of  Naram-Sin,  and  3800  as  that  of  his  father 
Sargon,  allowing  for  the  latter's  long  reign !  A 
scene-shifting  of  1800  years  at  one  slide  seemed 
something  so  startling  that  there  was  much  hesita- 
tion in  accepting  the  evidence,  unanswerable  as  it 
seemed,  and  the  possibility  of  an  error  of  the  en- 
graver was  seriously  considered.  Some  other  docu- 
ments, however,  were  found  independently  of  each 
other  and  in  different  places,  corroborating  the 
statement  on  Nabonidus'  cylinder,  and  the  tremen- 
dously ancient  date  of  3800  B.C.  is  now  generally  ac- 


214 


ThE  STORY  OF  CIJALDEA. 


cepted  for  Sargon  of  Agadc — perhaps  the  remotest 
authentic  date  yet  arrived  at  in  history. 

25.  When  we  survey  and  attempt  to  grasp  and 
classify  the  materials  we  have  for  an  early  "  His- 
tory of  Chaldea,"  it  appears  almost  presumptuous 
to  grace  so  necessarily  lame  an  attempt  with  so 
ambitious  a  name.  The  landmarks  are  so  few  and 
far  between,  so  unconnected  as  yet,  and  there  is  so 
much  uncertainty  about  them,  especially  about  plac- 
ing them.  The  experience  with  Sargon  of  Agadc 
has  not  been  encouraging  to  conjectural  chronol- 
ogy ;  yet  with  such  we  must  in  many  cases  be 
content  until  more  lucky  finds  turn  up  to  set  us 
right.  What,  for  instance,  is  the  proper  place  of 
GUDEA,  \.\\.Q patcsi  oi  SiRBURLA  (also  read  SiRGULLA 
or  SiRTlLLA,  and,  lately,  Zirlaba),  whose  magnif- 
icent statues  Mr.  de  Sarzec  found  in  the  principal 
hall  of  the  temple  of  which  the  bricks  bear  his 
stamp?  (See  p.  217.)  The  title  of  patcsi,  (not 
"  king"),  points  to  great  antiquity,  and  he  is  pretty 
generally  understood  to  have  lived  somewhere  be- 
tween 4000  and  3000  B.C.  That  he  was  not  a  Se- 
mite, but  an  Accadian  prince,  is  to  be  concluded 
not  only  from  the  language  of  his  inscriptions  and 
the  writing,  which  is  of  the  most  archaic — i.e.,  an- 
cient and  old-fashioned — character,  but  from  the 
fact  that  the  head,  which  was  found  with  the  stat- 
ues, is  strikingly  Turanian  in  form  and  features, 
shaved,  too,  and  turbaned  after  a  fashion  still  used 
in  Central  Asia.  Altogether  it  might  easily  be 
taken  for  that  of  a  modern  Mongolian  or  Tartar. 
The  discovery  of  this  builder  and  patron  of  art  has 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMITES. 


215 


greatly  eclipsed  the  glory  of  a  somewhat  later  ruler, 
Ur-EA,  King  of  Ur,'^'  who  had  long  enjoyed  the 
reputation  of  being  the  earliest  known  temple- 
builder.  He  remains  at  all  events  the  first  powerful 
monarch  we  read  of  in  Southern  Chaldea,  of  which 
Ur  appears  to  have  been  in  some  measure  the  cap- 
ital, at  least  in  so  far  as  to  have  a  certain  suprem- 
acy over  the  other  great  cities  of  Shumir. 

26.  Of  these  Shumir  had  many,  even  more  ven- 
erable for  their  age  and  holiness  than  those  of 
Accad,  For  the  South  was  the  home  of  the  old 
race  and  most  ancient  culture,  and  thence  both  had 
advanced  northward.  Hence  it  was  that  the  old 
stock  was  hardier  there  and  endured  longer  in  its 
language,  religion  and  nationality,  and  was  slower 
in  yielding  to  the  Semitic  counter-current  of  race 
and  culture,  which,  as  a  natural  consequence,  ob- 
tained an  earlier  and  stronger  hold  in  the  North, 
and  from  there  radiated  over  the  whole  of  Mesopo- 
tamia. There  was  Eridhu,  by  the  sea  "  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Rivers,"  the  immemorial  sanctuary  of 
Ea  ;  there  was  SiRBURLA,  so  lately  unknown,  now 
the  most  promising  mine  for  research  ;  there  was 
Larsam,  famous  with  the  glories  of  its  "  House  of 
the  Sun  "  {E-Babbara  in  the  old  language),  the  rival 
of  Ur,  the  city  of  the  Moon-god,  whose  kings  Ur-EA 
and  his  son  DUNGI  were,  it  appears,  the  first  to  take 


*This  name  was  at  first  read  Urukh,  then  Likbabi,  then  Likba- 
gash,  then  Urbagash,  then  Urba'u,  and  now  Professor  Friedr.  De- 
Htzsch  announces  that  the  final  and  correct  reading  is  in  all  proba- 
bility either  Ur-ea  or  Arad-ea- 


2 1 6  THE  S TOR  Y  OF  CIIA LDEA. 

the  ambitious  title  of  "  Kings  of  Shumir  and  Accad  " 
and  "  Kings  of  the  Four  Regions."  As  for  Babylon, 
proud  Babylon,  which  we  have  so  long  been  accus- 
tomed to  think  of  as  the  very  beginning  of  state  life 
and  political  rule  in  Chaldca,  it  was  perhaps  not  yet 
built  at  all,  or  only  modestly  beginning  its  existence 
under  its  Accadian  name  of  TiN-TlR-Kl  ("  the  Place 
of  the  Tree  of  Life  "),  or,  later,  Ca-Dimirra  ("  Gate 
of  God  "),  when  already  the  above  named  cities, 
and  several  more,  had  each  its  famous  temple  with 
ministering  college  of  priests,  and,  probably,  library, 
and  each  its  king.  But  political  power  was  for  a 
long  time  centred  at  Ur.  The  first  kings  of  Ur 
authentically  known  to  us  are  Ur-ea  and  his  son 
Dungi,  who  have  left  abundant  traces  of  their  ex- 
istence in  the  numerous  temples  they  built,  not  in 
Ur  alone,  but  in  most  other  cities  too.  Their  bricks 
have  been  identified  at  Larsa  (Senkereh),  and,  it 
appears,  at  Sirburla  (Tel-Loh),  at  Nippur  (Niffer) 
and  at  Urukh  (Erech,  Warka),  and  as  the  two  lat- 
ter cities  belonged  to  Accad,  they  seem  to  have 
ruled  at  least  part  of  that  country  and  thus  to 
have  been  justified  in  assuming  their  high-sound- 
ing title. 

27,  It  has  been  noticed  that  the  bricks  bearing 
the  name  of  Ur-ea  "  are  found  in  a  lower  position 
than  any  others,  at  the  very  foundation  of  build- 
ings;  "  that  "they  are  of  a  rude  and  coarse  make, 
of  many  sizes  and  ill-fitted  together ;  "  that  baked 
bricks  are  rare  among  them ;  that  they  are  held 
together  by  the  oldest  substitutes  for  mortar — mud 
and  bitumen — and  that  the  writing  upon   them  is 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMITES. 


217 


curiously  rude  and  imperfect.*  But  whatever  King 
Ur-ea's  architectural  efforts  may  lack  in  perfection, 
they  certainly  make  up  in  size  and  number.     Those 


58. — STATUE     OF     GUd£a,     WITH      INSCRIPTION  ;      FROM     TELL-LOH, 
(SIRBURLA   OR   SIRGULLA).      SARZEC   COLLECTION. 

(Hommel). 

that  he  did  not  complete,  his  son  Dungi   continued 
after  him.     It  is  remarkable  that  these  great  build- 

*  Geo.  Rawlinson,  "  Five  Great  Monarchies  of  the  Ancient  East- 
ern World"  (1862),  Vol.  L,  pp.  198  and  ff. 


2  1 8  THE  S  TOR  \ '  OF  CHA  L  DKA . 

ers  seem  to  have  dovoted  their  energies  exckisively 
to  rehgious  purposes;  also  that,  while  their  names 
are  Shumiro-Accadian,  and  their  inscriptions  are 
often  in  that  language,  the  temples  they  con- 
structed were  dedicated  to  various  deities  of  the 
new,  or  rather  reformed  religion.  When  we  see 
the  princes  of  the  South,  according  to  an  ingen- 
ious remark  of  Mr.  Lenormaiit,  thus  begin  a  sort  of 
practical  preaching  of  the  Semitized  religion,  we 
may  take  it  as  a  sign  of  the  times,  as  an  unmistaka- 
ble proof  of  the  influence  of  the  North,  political  as 
well  as  religious.  A  very  curious  relic  of  King 
Ur-ea  was  found — his  own  signet  cylinder — but  was 
unfortunately  lost  by  an  accident,  not,  however, 
before  impressions  had  been  taken  of  it.  It  repre- 
sents the  Moon-god  seated  on  a  throne, — as  is  but 
meet  for  the  king  of  the  Moon-god's  special  city — 
with  priests  presenting  worshippers.  No  definite 
date  is  of  course  assignable  to  Ur-ea  and  the  impor- 
tant epoch  of  Chaldean  history  w^hich  he  represents. 
But  a  very  probable  approximative  one  can  be  ar- 
rived at,  thanks  to  a  clue  supplied  by  the  same 
Nabonidus,  last  King  of  Babylon,  who  settled  the 
Sargon  question  for  us  so  unexpectedly.  That 
monarch  was  as  zealous  a  repairer  of  temples  as  his 
predecessors  had  been  zealous  builders.  He  had 
reasons  of  his  own  to  court  popularity,  and  could 
think  of  nothing  better  than  to  restore  the  time- 
honored  sanctuaries  of  the  land.  Among  others  he 
repaired  the  Sun-temple  (E-Babbara)  at  Larsam, 
whereof  we  are  duly  informed  by  a  special  cylinder. 
In  it  he  tells  posterity  that  he  found  a  cylinder  of 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMITES. 


219 


King  Hammurabi  intact  in  its  chamber  under  the 
corner-stone,  which  cyhnder  states  that  the  temple 
was  founded  700  years  before  Hammurabi's  time  ; 
as  Ur-ea  was  the  founder,  it  only  remains  to  deter- 
mine the  latter  king's  date  in  order  to  know  that 
of  the  earlier  one.*  Here  unfortunately  scholars 
differ,  not  having  as  yet  any  decisive  authority  to 
build  upon.  Some  place  Hammurabi  before  2000 
B.C.,  others  a  little  later.  It  is  perhaps  safest,  there- 
fore, to  assume  that  Ur-ea  can  scarcely  have  lived 
much  earlier  than  2800  or  much  later  than  2500 
B.C.  At  all  events,  he  must  necessarily  have  lived 
somewhat  before  23(X)  B.C.,  for  about  this  latter 
year  took  place  the  Elamite  invasion  recorded  by 
Asshurbanipal,  an  invasion  which,  as  this  King  ex- 
pressly mentions,  laid  waste  the  land  of  Accad  and 
desecrated  its  temples — evidently  the  same  ones 
which  Ur-ea  and  Dungi  so  piously  constructed. 
Nor  was  this  a  passing  inroad  or  raid  of  booty-seek- 
ing mountaineers.  It  was  a  real  conquest.  Khu- 
dur-Nankhundi  and  his  successors  remained  in 
Southern  Chaldea,  called  themselves  kings  of  the 
country,  and  reigned,  several  of  them  in  succession, 
so  that  this  series  of  foreign  rulers  has  become  known 
in  history  as  "  the  Elamite  dynasty."  There  was 
no  room  then  for  a  powerful  and  temple-building 
national  dynasty  like  that  of  the  kings  of  Ur. 

28.  This  is  the  first  time  we  meet  authentic  mon- 
umental  records   of   a  country  w^hich  was   destined 


*Geo.   Smith,  in  "Records  of  the  Past,"  Vol.  V.,  p.  75.      Fritz 
Hommel,  "  Die  Semiten,"  p.  210  and  note  loi. 


220  THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

through  the  next  sixteen  centuries  to  be  in  contin- 
ual contact,  mostly  hostile,  with  both  Babylonia 
and  her  northern  rival  Assyria,  until  its  final  anni- 
hilation by  the  latter.  Its  capital  was  SlIUSMAN, 
(afterwards  pronounced  by  foreigners  "  Susa  "),  and 
its  own  original  name  Shushinak,  Its  people 
were  of  Turanian  stock,  its  language  was  nearly 
akin  to  that  of  Shumir  and  Accad.  But  at 
some  time  or  other  Semites  came  and  settled  in 
Shushinak.  Though  too  few  in  number  to  change 
the  country's  language  or  customs,  the  superiority 
of  their  race  asserted  itself.  They  became  the  no- 
bility of  the  land,  the  ruling  aristocracy  from  which 
the  kings  were  taken,  the  generals  and  the  high 
functionaries.  That  the  Turanian  mass  of  the  popula- 
tion was  kept  in  subjection  and  looked  down  upon, 
and  that  the  Semitic  nobility  avoided  intermarry- 
ing with  them  is  highly  probable ;  and  it  would 
be  difificult  otherwise  to  explain  the  difference  of 
type  between  the  two  classes,  as  shown  in  the  rep- 
resentations of  captives  and  warriors  belonging  to 
both  on  the  Assyrian  sculptures.  The  common  herd 
of  prisoners  employed  on  public  labor  and  driven 
by  overseers  brandishing  sticks  have  an  unmistakably 
Turanian  type  of  features — high  cheek-bones,  broad, 
flattened  face,  etc.,  while  the  generals,  ministers  and 
nobles  have  all  the  dignity  and  beauty  of  the  hand- 
somest Jewish  type.  "  Elam,"  the  name  under  which 
the  country  is  best  known  both  from  the  Bible 
and  later  monuments,  is  a  Turanian  word,  which 
means,  like  "  Accad,"  "  Highlands."  It  is  the  only 
name    under   which    the  historian   of  Chap.   X.  of 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMITES.  22 1 

Genesis  admits  it  into  his  list  of  nations,  and,  con- 
sistently following  out  his  system  of  ignoring  all 
members  of  the  great  yellow  race,  he  takes  into  con- 
sideration only  the  Semitic  aristocracy,  and  makes 
of  Elam  a  son  of  Shem,  a  brother  of  Asshur  and 
Arpachshad.     (Gen.  x.  22.) 

29.  One  of  Khudur-Nankhundi's  next  successors, 
Khudur-Lagamar,  was  not  content  with  the  addi- 
tion of  Chaldea  to  his  kingdom  of  Elam.  He  had 
the  ambition  of  a  born  conqueror  and  the  general- 
ship of  one.  The  Chap.  XIV.  of  Genesis — which 
calls  him  Chedorlaomer — is  the  only  document  we 
have  descriptive  of  this  king's  warlike  career,  and  a 
very  striking  picture  it  gives  of  it,  sufficient  to  show 
us  that  we  have  to  do  with  a  very  remarkable  char- 
acter. Supported  by  three  allied  and  probably 
tributary  kings,  that  of  Shumir  (Shinear),  of  Larsam, 
(Ellassar)  and  of  the  GoiM,  (in  the  unrevised  trans- 
lation of  the  Bible  "  king  of  nations  ")  i.e.,  the  no- 
madic tribes  w^hich  roamed  on  the  outskirts  and  in 
the  yet  unsettled,  more  distant  portions  of  Chaldea, 
Khudur-Lagamar  marched  an  army  1200  miles 
across  the  desert  into  the  fertile,  wealthy  and  pop- 
ulous valleys  of  the  Jordan  and  the  lake  or  sea  of 
Siddim,  afterwards  called  the  Dead  Sea,  where  five 
great  cities — Sodom,  Gomorrah,  and  three  others — 
were  governed  by  as  many  kings.  Not  only  did  he 
subdue  these  kings  and  impose  his  rule  on  them, 
but  contrived,  even  after  he  returned  to  the  Persian 
Gulf,  to  keep  on  them  so  firm  a  hand,  that  for 
twelve  years  they  "  served  "  him,  i.e.,  paid  him  trib- 
ute regularly,  and   only  in   the   thirteenth   year,  en- 


222 


THE  STOKY  OF  CIIALDEA. 


couraged  by  his  prolonged  absence,  ventured  to 
rebel.  But  they  had  underrated  Khudur-Lagamar's 
vigilance  and  activity.  The  very  next  year  he  was 
among  them  again,  together  with  his  three  faithful 
allies,  encountered  them  in  the  vale  of  Siddim 
and  beat  them,  so  that  they  all  fled.  This  was 
the  battle  of  the  "  four  kings  with  five."  As  to 
the  treatment  to  which  the  victor  subjected  the 
conquered  country  it  is  very  briefly  but  clearly  de- 
scribed :  "  And  they  took  all  the  goods  of  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah,  and  all  their  victuals,  and  went  their 
way. 

30.  Now  there  dwelt  in  Sodom  a  man  of  foreign 
race  and  great  wealth,  Lot,  the  nephew  of  Abra- 
ham. For  Abraham  and  his  tribe  no  longer  lived 
at  Chaldean  Ur.  The  change  of  masters,  and  very 
probably  the  harsher  rule,  if  not  positive  oppres- 
sion, consequent  on  the  Elamite  conquest,  had 
driven  them  thence.  It  was  then  they  went  forth 
into  the  land  of  Canaan,  led  by  Terah  and  his  son 
Abraham,  and  when  Terah  died,  Abraham  became 
the  patriarch  and  chief  of  the  tribe,  which  from  this 
time  begins  to  be  called  in  the  Bible  "  Hebrews," 
from  an  eponymous  ancestor,  Heber  or  Eber,  whose 
name  alludes  to  the  passing  of  the  Euphrates,  or. 
perhaps,  in  a  wider  sense,  to  the  passage  of  the 
tribe  through  the  land  of  Chaldea.*  For  years  the 
tribe   travelled   without   dividing,    from   pasture   to 

*  It  should  be  mentioned,  however,  that  scholars  have  of  late  been 
inclined  to  see  in  this  name  an  allusion  to  the  passage  of  the  Jordan 
at  the  time  of  the  conquest  of  Canaan  by  Israel,  after  the  Egyptian 
bondage. 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMITES. 


223 


pasture,  over  the  vast  land  where  dwelt  the  Canaan- 
iteSjWell  seen  and  even  favored  of  them,  into  Egypt 
and  out  of  it  again,  until  the  quarrel  occurred  be- 
tween Abraham's  herdsmen  and  Lot's,  (see  Genesis, 
Chap.  XIII.),  and  the  separation,  when  Lot  chose 
the  plain  of  the  Jordan  and  pitched  his  tent  toward 
Sodom,  while  Abraham  dwelt  in  the  land  of  Canaan 
as  heretjDfore,  with  his  family,  servants  and  cattle,  in 
the  plain  of  Mamre.  It  was  while  dwelling  there,  in 
friendship  and  close  alliance  with  the  princes  of  the 
land,  that  one  who  had  escaped  from  the  battle  in 
the  vale  of  Siddim,  came  to  Abraham  and  told  him 
how  that  among  the  captives  whom  Khudur-Laga- 
mar  had  taken  from  Sodom,  was  Lot,  his  brother's 
son,  with  all  his  goods.  Then  Abraham  armed  his 
trained  servants,  born  in  his  own  household,  three 
hundred  and  eighteen,  took  with  him  his  friends, 
Mamre  and  his  brothers,  with  their  young  men,  and 
starting  in  hot  pursuit  of  the  victorious  army,  which 
was  now  carelessly  marching  home  towards  the  des- 
ert with  its  long  train  of  captives  and  booty,  over- 
took it  near  Damascus  in  the  night,  when  his  own 
small  numbers  could  not  be  detected,  and  produced 
such  a  panic  by  a  sudden  and  vigorous  onslaught 
that  he  put  it  to  flight,  and  not  only  rescued  his 
nephew  Lot  with  his  goods  and  women,  but  brought 
back  all  the  captured  goods  and  the  people  too. 
And  the  King  of  Sodom  came  out  to  meet  him  on 
his  return,  and  thanked  him,  and  wanted  him  to 
keep  all  the  goods  for  himself,  only  restoring  the 
persons.  Abraham  consented  that  a  proper  share 
of  the  rescued  goods  should  be  given  to  his   friends 


224 


THE  STORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 


and  their  young  men,  but  refused  all  presents  of- 
fered to  himself,  with  the  iiaughty  words:  "  I  have 
lift  up  mine  hand  unto  the  Lord,  the  most  high 
God,  the  possessor  of  heaven  and  earth,  that  I  will 
not  take  a  thread,  even  to  a  shoe-latchet,  and  that 
I  will  not  take  anything  that  is  thine,  lest  thou 
shouldest  say,  I  have  made  Abraham  rich." 

31.  Khudur-Lagamar,  of  whom  the  spirited  Bibli- 
cal narrative  gives  us  so  life-like  a  sketch,  lived,  ac- 
cording to  the  most  probable  calculations,  about 
2200  B.C.  Among  the  few  vague  forms  whose 
blurred  outlines  loom  out  of  the  twilight  of  those 
dim  and  doubtful  ages,  he  is  the  first  with  any  flesh- 
and-blood  reality  about  him,  probably  the  first  con- 
queror of  whom  the  world  has  any  authentic  record. 
For  Egypt,  the  only  country  which  rivals  in  anti- 
quity the  primitive  states  of  Mesopotamia,  although 
it  had  at  this  time  already  reached  the  height  of  its 
culture  and  prosperity,  was  as  yet  confined  by  its 
rulers  strictly  to  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  and  had  not 
entered  on  that  career  of  foreign  wars  and  conquests 
which,  some  thousand  years  later,  made  it  a  terror 
from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Persian  Gulf. 

32.  The  Elamite  invasion  was  not  a  passing  raid. 
It  was  a  real  conquest,  and  established  a  heavy  for- 
eign rule  in  a  highly  prosperous  and  flourishing 
land — a  rule  which  endured,  it  would  appear,  about 
three  hundred  years.  That  the  people  chafed  un- 
der it,  and  were  either  gloomily  despondent  or 
angrily  rebellious  as  long  as  it  lasted,  there  is  plenty 
of  evidence  in  their  later  literature.  It  is  even 
thought,  and  with  great  moral  probability,  that  the 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMITES.  225 

special  branch  of  religious  poetry  which  has  been 
called  "  Penitential  Psalms"  has  arisen  out  of  the 
sufferings  of  this  long  period  of  national  bondage 
and  humiliation,  and  if,  as  seems  to  be  proved  by 
some  lately  discovered  interesting  fragments  of 
texts,  these  psalms  were  sung  centuries  later  in 
Assyrian  temples  on  mournful  or  very  solemn  pub- 
lic occasions,  they  must  have  perpetuated  the  mem- 
ory of  the  great  national  calamity  that  fell  on  the 
mother-country  as  indelibly  as  the  Hebrew  psalms, 
of  which  they  were  the  models,  have  perpetuated 
that  of  King  David's  wanderings  and  Israel's  tribu- 
lations. 

33.  But  there  seems  to  have  been  one  Semitic 
royal  house  which  preserved  a  certain  indepen- 
dence and  quietly  gathered  power  against  better 
days.  To  do  this  they  must  have  dissembled  and 
done  as  much  homage  to  the  victorious  barbarians 
as  would  ensure  their  safety  and  serve  as  a  blind 
while  they  strengthened  their  home  rule.  This 
dynasty,  destined  to  the  glorious  task  of  restoring 
the  country's  independence  and  founding  a  new  na- 
tional monarchy,  was  that  of  Tin-tir-ki,  or  Kadi- 
mirra — a  name  now  already  translated  into  the  Se- 
mitic BaB-ILU,  ("the  Gate  of  God  ") ;  they  reigned 
over  the  large  and  important  district  of  KardunI- 
ASH,  important  from  its  central  position,  and  from 
the  fact  that  it  seems  to  have  belonged  neither  to 
Accad,  nor  to  Shumir,  but  to  have  been  politically 
independent,  since  it  is  always  mentioned  by  itself. 
Still,  to  the  Hebrews,  Babylon  lay  in  the  land  of 
Shinar.  and  it  is  strongly  supposed  that  the  "  Am- 


226  THE  SrOKY  OF  CHALDEA. 

raphel  king  of  Shinar  "  who  marched  with  Khudiir- 
Lagamar,  as  his  ally,  against  the  five  kings  of  the 
Jordan  and  the  Dead  Sea,  was  no  other  than  a  king 
of  Babylon,  one  of  whose  names  has  been  read 
Amarpal,  while  "  Ariokh  of  Ellassar  "  was  an  Ela- 
mite,  Eri-AKU,  brother  or  cousin  of  Khudur-Laga- 
mar.  and  King  of  Larsam,  where  the  conquerors  had 
established  a  powerful  dynasty,  closely  allied  by 
blood  to  the  principal  one,  w^hich  had  made  the  ven- 
erable Ur  its  headquarters.  This  Amarpal,  more 
frequently  mentioned  under  his  other  name  of  SlN- 
MUBALLIT,  is  thought  to  have  been  the  father  of 
Hammurabi,  the  deliverer  of  Chaldea  and  the 
founder  of  the  new  empire. 

34.  The  inscriptions  which  Hammurabi  left  are 
numerous,  and  afford  us  ample  means  of  judging 
of  his  greatness  as  warrior,  statesman  and  admin- 
istrator. In  his  long  reign  of  fifty-five  years  he 
had,  indeed,  time  to  achieve  much,  but  what  he  did 
achieve  ivas  much  even  for  so  long  a  reign.  In 
what  manner  he  drove  out  the  foreigners  we  are  not 
told,  but  so  much  is  clear  that  the  decisive  victory 
was  that  which  he  gained  over  the  Elamite  king 
of  Larsam.  It  was  probably  by  expelling  the  hated 
race  by  turns  from  every  district  they  occupied, 
that  Hammurabi  gathered  the  entire  land  into  his 
own  hands  and  was  enabled  to  keep  it  together  and 
weld  it  into  one  united  empire,  including  both  Ac- 
cad  and  Shumir,  with  all  their  time-honored  cities 
and  sanctuaries,  making  his  own  ancestral  city. 
Babylon,  the  head  and  capital  of  them  all.  This 
king  was   in   every   respect  a  great   and  wise   ruler, 


CUSHITES  AND  SEMITES.  227 

for,  after  freeing  and  uniting  the  country,  he  was 
very  careful  of  its  good  and  watchful  of  its  agricult- 
ural interests.  Like  all  the  other  kings,  he  restored 
many  temples  and  built  several  new  ones.  But  he 
also  devoted  much  energy  to  public  works  of  a 
more  generally  useful  kind.  During  the  first  part 
of  his  reign  inundations  seem  to  have  been  frequent 
and  disastrous,  possibly  in  consequence  of  the  ca- 
nals and  waterworks  having  been  neglected  under 
the  oppressive  foreign  rule.  The  inscriptions  speak 
of  a  city  having  been  destroyed  "  by  a  great  flood," 
and  mention  "  a  great  wall  along  the  Tigris  " — prob- 
ably an  embankment,  as  having  been  built  by  Ham- 
murabi  for  protection  against  the  river.  But  prob- 
ably finding  the  remedy  inadequate,  he  undertook 
and  completed  one  of  the  greatest  public  works 
that  have  ever  been  carried  out  in  any  country  :  the 
excavation  of  a  gigantic  canal,  which  he  called  by 
his  own  name,  but  which  was  afterwards  famous  un- 
der that  of  "  Royal  Canal  of  Babylon."  From  this 
canal  innumerable  branches  carried  the  fertilizing 
waters  through  the  country.  It  was  and  remained 
the  greatest  work  of  the  kind,  and  was,  fifteen  cent- 
uries later,  the  wonder  of  the  foreigners  who  visited 
Babylon.  Its  constructor  did  not  overrate  the  ben- 
efit he  had  conferred  when  he  wrote  in  an  inscrip- 
tion which  can  scarcely  be  called  boastful ;  "  I  have 
caused  to  be  dug  the  Nahr-Hammurabi,  a  benedic- 
tion for  the  people  of  Shumir  and  Accad.  I  have 
directed  the  waters  of  its  branches  over  the  desert 
plains  ;  I  have  caused  them  to  run  in  the  dry  chan- 
nels and    thus    given  unfailing  waters  to  the  pec- 


228  TWiE:  S TOR  V  OF  CHA LDEA. 

pie.  ...  I  have  changed  desert  plains  into  well- 
watered  lands.  I  have  given  them  fertility  and 
plenty,  and  made  them  the  abode  of  happiness." 

35.  There  are  inscriptions  of  Hammurabi's  son. 
But  after  him  a  new  catastrophe  seems  to  have  over- 
taken Chaldea.  He  is  succeeded  by  a  line  of  for- 
eign kings,  who  must  have  obtained  possession  of 
the  country  by  conquest.  They  were  princes  of  a 
fierce  and  warlike  mountain  race,  the  Kassiii,  who 
lived  in  the  highlands  that  occupy  the  whole  north- 
western portion  of  Elam,  where  they  probably  be- 
gan to  feel  cramped  for  room.  This  same  people 
has  been  called  by  the  later  Greek  geographers 
COSSAEANS  or  CisslANS,  and  is  better  known  under 
either  of  these  names.  Their  language,  of  which 
very  few  specimens  have  survived,  is  not  yet  under- 
stood ;  but  so  much  is  plain,  that  it  is  very  different 
both  from  the  Semitic  language  of  Babylon  and  that 
of  Shumir  and  Accad,  so  that  the  names  of  the  Kas- 
shi  princes  are  easily  distinguishable  from  all  others. 
No  dismemberment  of  the  empire  followed  this 
conquest,  however,  if  conquest  there  was.  The 
kings  of  the  new  dynasty  seem  to  have  succeeded 
each  other  peacefully  enough  in  Bab)-lon.  But  the 
conquering  days  of  Chaldea  were  over.  We  read 
no  more  of  expeditions  into  the  plains  of  Syria  and 
to  the  "  Sea  of  the  setting  sun."  For  a  power  was 
rising  in  the  North-West,  which  quickly  grew  into 
a  formidable  rival  :  through  many  centuries  As- 
syria kept  the  rulers  of  the  Southern  kingdom  too 
busy  guarding  their  frontiers  and  repelling  inroads 
to  allow  them  to  think  of  foreign  conquests. 


V. 

BABYLONIAN   RELIGION. 

I.  In  relating  the  legend  of  the  Divine  Man-Fish, 
who  came  out  of  the  Gulf,  and  was  followed,  at 
intervals,  by  several  more  similar  beings,  Berosus 
assures  us,  that  he  "taught  the  people  all  the 
things  that  make  up  civilization,"  so  that  "  noth- 
ing new  was  invented  after  that  any  more,"  But 
if,  as  is  suggested,  "this  monstrous  Oannes "  is 
really  a  personification  of  the  strangers  who  came 
into  the  land,  and,  being  possessed  of  a  higher  cul- 
ture, began  to  teach  the  Turanian  population,  the 
first  part  of  this  statement  is  as  manifestly  an  exag- 
geration as  the  second.  A  people  who  had  in- 
vented writing,  who  knew  how  to  build,  to  make 
canals,  to  work  metals,  and  who  had  passed  out  of 
the  first  and  grossest  stage  of  religious  conceptions, 
might  have  much  to  learn,  but  certainly  not  every- 
thing. What  the  newcomers — whether  Cushites  or 
Semites — did  teach  them,  was  a  more  orderly  way 
of  organizing  society  and  ruling  it  by  means  of 
laws  and  an  established  government,  and,  above  all, 
astronomy  and  mathematics— sciences  in  which  the 
Shumiro-Accads  were  little  proficient,  while  the 
later  and  mixed  nation,  the  Chaldeans,  attained  in 

229 


230  THE  S TOR  Y  OF  CHA LDEA. 

them  a  very  \\v^\  perfection,  so  that  many  of  their 
discoveries  and  the  first  principles  laid  down  by 
them  have  come  down  to  us  as  finally  adopted 
facts,  confirmed  by  later  science.  Thus,  the  divis- 
ion of  the* year  into  twelve  months  corresponding  to 
as  many  constellations,  known  as  "  the  twelve  signs 
of  the  Zodiac,"  was  familiar  to  them.  They  had 
also  found  out  the  division  of  the  year  into  twelve 
months,  only  all  their  months  had  thirty  days.  So 
they  were  obliged  to  add  an  extra  month — an  inter- 
calary month,  as  the  scientific  term  is — every  six 
years,  to  start  even  with  the  sun  again,  for  they 
knew  where  the  error  in  their  reckoning  lay.  These 
things  the  strangers  probably  taught  the  Shumiro- 
Accads,  but  at  the  same  time  borrowed  from  them 
their  way  of  counting.  The  Turanian  races  to  this 
day  have  this  peculiarity,  that  they  do  not  care  for 
the  decimal  system  in  arithmetic,  but  count  by 
dozens  and  sixties,  preferring  numbers  that  can  be 
divided  by  twelve  and  sixty.  The  Chinese  even 
now  do  not  measure  time  by  centuries  or  periods  of 
a  hundred  years,  but  by  a  cycle  or  period  of  sixty 
years.  This  was  probably  the  origin  of  the  divis- 
ion, adopted  in  Babylonia,  of  the  sun's  course  into 
360  equal  parts  or  degrees,  and  of  the  day  into 
twelve  ^^  kasbns''  or  double  hours,  since  the  kasbu 
answered  to  two  of  our  hours,  and  was  divided  into 
sixty  parts,  which  we  might  thus  call  "double  min- 
utes," while  these  again  were  composed  of  sixty 
"double  seconds."  The  natural  division  af  the 
year  into  twelve  months  made  this  so-called 
"  docenal  "  and  "  sexagesimal  "  system  of  calculation 


BABYLONIAN  RELIGION.  23 1 

particularly  convenient,  and  it  was  applied  to  every- 
thing— measures  of  weight,  distance,  capacity  and 
size  as  well  as  time. 

2.  Astronomy  is  a  strangely  fascinating  science, 
with  two  widely  different  and  seemingly  contra- 
dictory aspects,  equally  apt  to  develop  habits  of 
hard  thinking  and  of  dreamy  speculation.  For,  if 
on  one  hand  the  study  of  mathematics,  without 
which  astronomy  cannot  subsist,  disciplines  the 
mind  and  trains  it  to  exact  and  complicated  opera- 
tions, on  the  other  hand,  star-gazing,  in  the  solitude 
and  silence  of  a  southern  night,  irresistibly  draws 
it  into  a  higher  world,  where  poetical  aspirations, 
guesses  and  dreams  take  the  place  of  figures  with 
their  demonstrations  and  proofs.  It  is  probably  to 
these  habitual  contemplations  that  the  later  Chal- 
deans owed  the  higher  tone  of  religious  thought 
which  distinguished  them  from  their  Turanian  pred- 
ecessors. They  looked  for  the  deity  in  heaven,  not 
on  earth.  They  did  not  cower  and  tremble  before 
a  host  of  wicked  goblins,  the  creation  of  a  terrified 
fancy.  The  spirits  whom  they  worshipped  inhab- 
ited and  ruled  those  beautiful  bright  worlds,  whose 
harmonious,  concerted  movements  they  watched 
admiringly,  reverently,  and  could  calculate  cor- 
rectly, but  without  understanding  them.  The  stars 
generally  became  to  them  the  visible  manifestations 
and  agents  of  divine  power,  especially  the  seven 
most  conspicuous  heavenly  bodies:  the  Moon, 
whom  they  particularly  honored  as  the  ruler  of 
night  and  the  measurer  of  time,  the  Sun  and  the 
five  planets  then  known,  those  which  we  call  Saturn, 


2  -,  2  THE  S  TOR  Y  OF  CI/ A  L  DEA . 

Jupiter,  Mars,  Venus  and  Mercury.  It  is  but  just 
to  the  Shumiro-Accads  to  say  that  the  perception 
of  the  divine  in  the  beauty  of  the  stars  was  not  for- 
eign to  them.  '  This  is  amply  proved  by  the  fact 
that  in  their  oldest  writing  the  sign  of  a  star  is  used 
to  express  the  idea  not  of  any  particular  god  or 
goddess,  but  of  the  divine  principle,  the  deity  gen- 
erally. The  name  of  every  divinity  is  preceded  by 
the  star,  meaning  "  the  god  so-and-so."  When  used 
in  this  manner,  the  sign  was  read  in  the  old  lan- 
guage "Dingir" — "  god,  deity."  The  Semitic  lan- 
guage of  Babylonia  which  we  call  "  Assyrian,"  while 
adapting  the  ancient  writing  to  its  own  needs, 
retained  this  use  of  the  sign  "star,"  and  read  it  t/u, 
"god."  This  word — ILU  or  El — we  find  in  all  Sem- 
itic languages,  either  ancient  or  modern,  in  the 
names  they  give  to  God,  in  the  Arabic  Allaii  as 
well  as  in  the  Hebrew  Elohim. 

3.  This  religion,  based  and  centred  on  the  wor- 
ship of  the  heavenly  bodies,  has  been  called  Sabcistn, 
and  was  common  to  most  Semitic  races,  whose 
primitive  nomadic  life  in  the  desert  and  wide,  flat 
pasture-tracts,  with  the  nightly  watches  required  by 
the  tending  of  vast  flocks,  inclined  them  to  contem- 
plation and  star-gazing.  It  is  to  be  noticed  that 
the  Semites  gave  the  first  place  to  the  Sun,  and  not 
to  the  Moon,  like  the  Shumiro-Accads,  possibly 
from  a  feeling  akin  to  terror,  experiencing  as  they 
did  his  destructive  power,  in  the  frequent  droughts 
and  consuming:  heat  of  the  desert.* 


*  See  A.  H.  Sayce,  "The  Ancient  Empires  of  the  East  "  (1883), 
p.  389. 


BABYLONIAN  RELIGION.  233 

4.  A  very  prominent  feature  of  the  new  order  of 
things  was  the  great  power  and  importance  of  the 
priesthood.     A    successful    pursuit    of    science    re- 
quires   two     things:     intellectual    superiority    and 
leisure  to  study,  i.e.,  freedom  from   the  daily  care 
how  to  procure  the  necessaries  of  life.     In  very  an- 
cient times  people  in  general  were  quite  willing  to 
acknowledge  the  superiority  of  those  men  who  knew 
more  than  they  did,   who  could   teach  them    and 
help  them  with  wise  advice  ;  they  were  willing  also 
to  support  such    men  by  voluntary  contributions, 
in  order  to  give  them  the  necessary  leisure.     That 
a  race  with  whom  science  and   religion  were  one 
should  honor  the  men  thus  set  apart  and  learned 
in  heavenly  things  and  allow  them  great  influence 
in  private  and  public  affairs,  believing  them,  as  they 
did,  to  stand  in  direct  communion  with  the  divine 
powers,  was  but  natural ;  and  from  this  to  letting 
them  take  to  themselves  the  entire  government  of 
the  country  as  the  established   rulers   thereof,  was 
but    one    step.     There    was    another    circumstance 
which    helped    to    bring    about    this    result.     The 
Chaldeans    were    devout    believers    in    astrology,  a 
form    of    superstition   into  which    an    astronomical 
religion   like    Sabeism    is  very  apt    to    degenerate. 
For  once  it  is  taken  for  granted  that  the  stars  are 
divine  beings,   possessed   of  intelligence,  and  will, 
and  power,  what  more  natural  than  to  imagine  that 
they  can  rule  and   shape  the  destinies  of  men  by  a 
mysterious  influence?     This  influence  was  supposed 
to  depend  on  their  movements,   their  position   in 
the  sky,  their  ever  changing  combinations  and  rela- 


234 


THE  SrORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 


tions  to  each  other;  under  this  supposition  every 
movement  of  a  star — its  rising,  its  setting,  'or  cross- 
ing the  path  of  another — every  sHghtest  change  in 
the  aspect  of  the  heavens,  every  unusual  phenom- 
enon— an  eclipse,  for  instance — must  be  possessed 
of  some  weighty  sense,  boding  good  or  evil  to  men, 
whose  destiny  must  constantly  be  as  clearly  written 
in  the  blue  sky  as  in  a  book.  If  only  one  could 
learn  the  language,  read  the  characters !  Such 
knowledge  was  thought  to  be  Avithin  the  reach  of 
men,  but  only  to  be  acquired  by  the  exceptionally 
gifted  and  learned  few,  and  those  whom  they  might 
think  worthy  of  having  it  imparted  to  them.  That 
these  few  must  be  priests  was  self-evident.  They 
were  themselves  fervent  believers  in  astrology, 
which  they  considered  quite  as  much  a  real  science 
as  astronomy,  and  to  which  they  devoted  themselves 
as  assiduousl^^  They  thus  became  the  acknowl- 
edged interpreters  of  the  divine  will,  partakers,  so 
to  speak,  of  the  secret  councils  of  heaven.  Of 
course  such  a  position  added  greatly  to  their  power, 
and  that  they  should  never  abuse  it  to  strengthen 
their  hold  on  the  public  mind  and  to  favor  their 
own  ambitious  views,  was  not  in  human  nature. 
Moreover,  being  the  clever  and  learned  ones  of  the 
nation,  they  really  were  at  the  time  the  fittest  to 
rule  it — and  rule  it  they  did.  When  the  Semitic 
culture  spread  over  Shumir,  whence  it  did  not  at 
once  extend  into  the  North,  or  land  of  Accad, 
there  arose  in  each  great  city — Ur,  Eridhu,  Larsam, 
Erech, — a  mighty  temple,  with  its  priests,  its  library, 
its  Ziggiirat   or    observatory.     The    cities    and   the 


BABYLONIAN  RELIGION 


235 


tracts  of  country  belonging  to  them  were  governed 
by  their  respective  colleges.  And  when  in  progress 
of  time,  the  power  became  centred  in  the  hands  of 
single  men,  they  still  were  priest-kings,  patcsis, 
whose  royalty  must  have  been  greatly  hampered 
and  limited  by  the  authority  of  their  priestly  col- 
leagues. Such  a  form  of  government  is  known  un- 
der the  name  of  theocracy,  composed  of  two  Greek 
words  and  meaning  "divine  government." 

5.  This  religious  reform  represents  a  complete 
though  probably  peaceable  revolution  in  the  condi- 
tion of  the  "  Land  between  the  Rivers."  The  new 
and  higher  culture  had  thoroughly  asserted  itself  as 
predominant  in  both  its  great  provinces,  and  in 
nothing  as  much  as  in  the  national  religion,  which, 
coming  in  contact  with  the  conceptions  of  the  Sem- 
ites, was  affected  by  a  certain  nobler  spiritual 
strain,  a  purer  moral  feeling,  which  seems  to  have 
been  mor.e  peculiarly  Semitic,  though  destined  to 
be  carried  to  its  highest  perfection  only  in  the 
Hebrew  branch  of  the  race.  Moral  tone  is  a  subtle 
influence,  and  will  work  its  way  into  men's  hearts 
and  thoughts  far  more  surely  and  irresistibly  than 
any  amount  of  preaching  and  commanding,  for  men 
are  naturally  drawn  to  what  is  good  and  beautiful 
when  it  is  placed  before  them.  Thus  the  old  set- 
tlers of  the  land,  the  Shumiro-Accads,  to  whom  their 
gross  and  dismal  goblin  creed  could  not  be  of  much 
comfort,  were  not  slow  in  feeling  this  ennobling 
and  beneficent  influence,  and  it  is  assuredly  to  that 
we  owe  the  beautiful  prayers  and  hymns  which 
mark  the  higher  stage  of  their  religion.     The  con- 


236 


THE  STORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 


sciousness  of  sin,  the  feeling  of  contrition,  of  de- 
pendence on  an  offended  yet  merciful  divine  power, 
so  strikingly  conspicuous  in  the  so-called  "  Peniten- 
tial Psalms"  (see  p.  178),  the  fine  poetry  in  some 
of  the  later  hymns,  for  instance  those  to  the  Sun 
(see  p.  171),  are  features  so  distinctively  Semitic, 
that  they  startle  us  by  their  resemblance  to  certain 
portions  of  the  Bible.  On  the  other  hand,  a  nation 
never  forgets  or  quite  gives  up  its  own  nati\e  creed 
and  religious  practices.  The  wise  priestly  rulers  of 
Shumir  and  Accad  did  not  attempt  to  compel  the 
people  to  do  so,  but  even  while  introducing  and 
propagating  the  new  religion,  suffered  them  to  go  on 
believing  in  their  hosts  of  evil  spirits  and  their  few 
beneficent  ones,  in  their  conjuring,  soothsaying,  cast- 
ing and  breaking  of  spells  and  charms.  Nay,  more. 
As  time  went  on  and  the  learned  priests  studied  more 
closely  the  older  creed  and  ideas,  they  were  struck 
with  the  beauty  of.some  few  of  their  conceptions — 
especially  that  of  the  ever  benevolent,  ever  watch- 
ful Spirit  of  Earth,  Ea,  and  his  son  Meridug,  the 
mediator,  the  friend  of  men.  These  conceptions, 
these  and  some  other  favorite  national  divinities, 
they  thought  worthy  of  being  adopted  by  them 
and  worked  into  their  own  religious  system,  which 
was  growing  more  complicated,  more  elaborate 
every  day,  while  the  large  bulk  of  spirits  and  de- 
mons they  also  allowed  a  place  in  it,  in  the  rank  of 
inferior  "  Spirits  of  heaven  "  and  "  Spirits  of  earth," 
which  were  lightly  classed  together  and  counted  by 
hundreds.  By  the  time  a  thousand  years  had 
passed,    the   fusion  had  become  so   complete   that 


BABYLONIAN  RELIGION.  2X1 

there  really  was  both  a  new  religion  and  a  new  na- 
tion, the  result  of  a  long  work  of  amalgamation. 
The  Shumiro-Accads  of  pure  yet  low  race  were  no 
longer,  nor  did  the  Semites  preserve  a  separate  ex- 
istence ;  they  had  become  merged  into  one  nation 
of  mixed  races,  which  at  a  later  period  became 
known  under  the  general  name  of  Chaldeans,  whose 
religion,  regarded  with  awe  for  its  prodigious  an- 
tiquity, was  comparatively  recent,  since  it  was  the 
outcome  of  the  combination  of  two  infinitely  older 
creeds,  as  we  have  just  seen.  When  Hammurabi 
established  his  residence  at  Babel,  a  city  which  had 
but  lately  risen  to  importance,  he  made  it  the  cap- 
ital of  the  empire  first  completely  united  under  his 
rule  (see  p.  226),  hence  the  name  of  Babylonia  is 
given  by  ancient  writers  to  the  old  land  of  Shumir 
and  Accad,  even  more  frequently  than  that  of  Chal- 
dea,  and  the  state  religion  is  called  indifferently 
the  Babylonian  or  Chaldean,  and  not  unfrequently 
Chaldeo-Babylonian. 

6.  This  religion,  as  it  was  definitely  established 
and  handed  down  unchanged  through  a  succession 
of  twenty  centuries  and  more,  had  a  twofold  char- 
acter, which  must  be  well  grasped  in  order  to  under- 
stand its  general  drift  and  sense.  On  the  one  hand, 
as  it  admitted  the  existence  of  many  divine  powers, 
who  shared  between  them  the  government  of  the 
world,  it  was  decidedly  POLYTHEISTIC — "  a  religion 
of  many  gods."  On  the  other  hand,  a  dim  percep- 
tion had  already  been  arrived  at,  perhaps  through 
observation  of  the  strictly  regulated  movements  of 
the  stars,  of  the   presence  of  One  supreme   ruling 


238 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


and  directing  Power.  For  a  class  of  men  given  to 
the  study  of  astronomy  could  not  but  perceive  that 
all  those  bright  Beings  which  they  thought  so 
divine  and  powerful,  were  not  absolutely  inde- 
pendent ;  that  their  movements  and  combinations 
were  too  regular,  too  strictly  timed,  too  identical  in 
their  ever  recurring  repetition,  to  be  entirely  volun- 
tary ;  that,  consequently,  they  obeyed — obeyed  a 
Law,  a  Power  above  and  beyond  them,  beyond 
heaven  itself,  invisible,  unfathomable,  unattainable 
by  human  thought  or  eyes.  Such  a  perception 
was,  of  course,  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  towards 
Monotheism,  i.e.,  the  belief  in  only  one  God.  But 
the  perception  was  too  vague  and  remote  to  be  fully 
realized  and  consistently  carried  out.  The  priests 
who,  from  long  training  in  abstract  thought  and 
contemplation,  probably  could  look  deeper  and 
come  nearer  the  truth  than  other  people,  strove  to 
express  their  meaning  in  language  and  images 
which,  in  the  end,  obscured  the  original  idea  and 
ahnost  hid  it  out  of  sight,  instead  of  making  it 
clearer.  Besides,  they  did  not  imagine  the  world 
as  created  by  God,  made  by  an  act  of  his  will,  but 
as  being  a  form  of  him,  a  manifestation,  part  of 
himself,  of  his  own  substance.  Therefore,  in  the 
great  all  of  the  universe,  and  in  each  of  its  portions, 
in  the  mysterious  forces  at  work  in  it — light  and 
heat  and  life  and  growth^ — they  admired  and  adored 
not  the  power  of  God,  but  his  very  presence;  one 
of  the  innumerable  and  infinitely  varied  forms  in 
which  he  makes  himself  known  and  visible  to  men, 
manifests  himself  to  them — in  short,   an  emanation 


BABYLONIAN  RELIGION. 


239 


of  God.  The  word  "  emanation  "  has  been  adopted 
as  the  only  one  which  to  a  certain  extent  conveys 
this  very  subtle  and  complicated  idea.  An  emana- 
tion is  not  quite  a  thing  itself,  but  it  is  a  portion  of 
it,  which  comes  out  of  it  and  separates  itself  from 
it,  yet  cannot  exist  without  it.  So  the  fragrance 
of  a  flower  is  not  the  flower,  nor  is  it  a  growth  or 
development  of  it,  yet  the  flower  gives  it  forth  and 
it  cannot  exist  by  itself  without  the  flower — it  is  an 
emanation  of  the  flower.  The  same  can  be  said  of 
the  mist  which  visibly  rises  from  the  warm  earth  in 
low  and  moist  places  on  a  summer  evening — it  is  an 
emanation  of  the  earth. 

7.  The  Chaldeo-Babylonian  priests  knew  of  many 
such  divine  emanations,  which,  by  giving  them 
names  and  attributing  to  them  definite  functions, 
they  made  into  so  many  separate  divine  persons. 
Of  these  some  ranked  higher  and  some  lower,  a 
relation  which  was  sometimes  expressed  by  the 
human  one  of  "  father  and  son."  They  were  or- 
dered in  groups,  very  scientifically  arranged.  Above 
the  rest  were  placed  two  Triads  or  "groups  of 
three."  The  first  triad  comprised  Anu,  Ea  and 
Bel,  the  supreme  gods  of  all — all  three  retained 
from  the  old  Shumiro-Accadian  list  of  divinities. 
Anu  is  Ana,  "  Heaven,"  and  the  surnames  or 
epithets  which  are  given  him  in  different  texts, 
sufficiently  show  what  conception  had  been  formed 
of  him :  he-  is  called  "  the  Lord  of  the  starry 
heavens,"  ''the  Lord  of  Darkness,"  "  the  first-born, 
the  oldest,  the  Father  of  the  Gods."  Ea,  retaim'no- 
his  ancient  attributions  as  "  Lord  of  the  Deep,"  the 


240 


THE  STORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 


pre-eminently  wise  and  beneficent  spirit,  represents 
tlie  Divine  Intelligence,  the  founder  and  maintainer 
of  order  and  harmony,  while  the  actual  task  of  sep- 
arating the  elements  of  chaos  and  shaping  them 
into  the  forms  which  make  up  the  world  as  we 
know  it,  as  well  as  that  of  ordering  the  heavenly 
bodies,  appointing  them  their  path  and  directing 
them  thereon,  was  devolved  on  the  third  person 
of  the  triad,  Bel,  the  son  of  Ea.  Bel  is  a  Semitic 
name,  which  means  simply  "  the  lord," 

8.  From  its  nature  and  attributions,  it  is  clear 
that  to  this  triad  must  have  attached  a  certain 
vagueness  and  remoteness.  Not  so  the  second 
triad,  in  which  the  Deity  manifested  itself  as  stand- 
ing in  the  nearest  and  most  direct  relation  to  man 
as  most  immediately  influencing  him  in  his  daily 
life.  The  persons  of  this  triad  were  the  Moon,  the 
Sun,  and  the  Power  of  the  Atmosphere, — SiN, 
Shamash,  and  Raman,  the  Semitic  names  for  the 
Shumiro-Accadian  Uru-Ki  or  Naxxar,  Ud  or 
Babbar,  and  Im  or  Mermer.  Very  characteristic- 
ally. Sin  is  frequently  called  "  the  god  Thirty,"  in 
allusion  to  his  functions  as  the  measurer  of  time  pre- 
siding over  the  month.  Of  the  feelings  with  which 
the  Sun  was  regarded  and  the  beneficent  and  splen- 
did qualities  attributed  to  him,  we  know  enough  from 
the  beautiful  hymns  quoted  in  Chap.  III.  (see  p. 
172).  As  to  the  god  Raman,  frequently  represented 
on  tablets  and  cylinders  by  his  characteristic  sign, 
the  double  or  triple-forked  lightning-bolt — his  im- 
portance as  the  dispenser  of  rain,  the  lord  of  the 
whirlwind  and   tempest,  made  him  very  popular,  an 


BABYLONIAN  RELIGION. 


241 


object  as  much  of  dread  as  of  gratitude  ;  and  as  the 
crops  depended  on  the  supply  of  water  from  the 
canals,  and  these  again  could  not  be  full  without 
abundant  rains,  it  is  not  astonishing  that  he  should 
have  been  particularly  entitled  "  protector  or  lord 
of  canals,"  giver  of  abundance  and  "lord  of  fruit- 
fulness."  In  his  more  terrible  capacity,  he  is  thus 
described  :  "  His  standard  titles  are  the  minister  of 
heaven  and  earth,"  "  the  lord  of  the  air,"  "  he  who 
makes  the  tempest  to  rage."  He  is  regarded  as  the 
destroyer  of  crops,  the  rooter-up  of  trees,  the  scat- 
terer  of  the  harvest.  Famine,  scarcity,  and  even 
their  consequence,  pestilence,  are  assigned  to  him. 
He  is  said  to  have  in  his  hand  a  "  flaming  sword  " 
with  which  he  effects  his  works  of  destruction,  and 
this  "  flaming  sword,  which  probably  represents 
lightning,  becomes  his  emblem  upon  the  tablets  and 
cylinders."  * 

9.  The  astronomical  tendencies  of  the  new  relig- 
ion fully  assert  themselves  in  the  third  group  of 
divinities.  They  are  simply  the  five  planets  then 
known  and  identified  with  various  deities  of  the  old 
creed,  to  whom  they  are,  so  to  speak,  assigned  as 
their  own  particular  provinces.  Thus  NiNDAR  (also 
called  NiNiP  or  NiNEB),  originally  another  name 
or  form  of  the  Sun  (see  p.  172),  becomes  the  ruler 
of  the  most  distant  planet,  the  one  we  now  call  Sat- 
urn ;  the  old  favorite,  Meridug,  under  the  Semitized 
name  of  Marduk,  rules  the  planet  Jupiter.  It  is  he 
whom  later  Hebrew  writers  have  called  Merodach, 

*  Rawlinson's  "  Five  Monarchies,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  164. 


242 


TEE  SrORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 


the  name  we  find  in  the  Bible.  The  planet  Mars 
belongs,  to  Nergal,  the  warrior-god,  and  Mercury 
to  Nebo,  more  properly  Nabu,  the  "  messenger  of 
the  gods "  and  the  special  patron  of  astronomy, 
while  the  planet  Venus  is  under  the  sway  of  a  fem- 
inine deity,  the  goddess  ISHTAR,  one  of  the  most 
important  and  popular  on  the  list.  But  of  her  more 
anon.  She  leads  us  to  the  consideration  of  a  very 
essential  and  characteristic  feature  of  the  Chaldeo- 
Babylonian  religion,  common,  moreover,  to  all  Ori- 
ental heathen  religions,  especially  the  Semitic  ones. 
lO.  There  is  a  distinction — the  distinction  of  sex 
— which  runs  through  the  whole  of  animated  nature, 
dividing  all  things  that  have  life  into  two  separate 
halves — male  and  female — halves  most^  different  in 
their  qualities,  often  opposite,  almost  hostile,  yet 
eternally  dependent  on  each  other,  neither  being  com- 
plete or  perfect,  or  indeed  able  to  exist  without  the 
other.  Separated  by  contrast,  yet  drawn  together 
by  an  irresistible  sympathy  which  results  in  the  clos- 
est union,  that  of  love  and  affection,  the  two  sexes 
still  go  through  life  together,  together  do  the  work 
of  the  world.  What  the  one  has  not  or  has  in  an  in- 
sufficient degree  it  finds  in  its  counterpart,  and  it  is 
only  their  union  whi-ch  makes  of  the  world  a  whole 
thing,  full,  rounded,  harmonious.  The  masculine  na- 
ture, active,  strong,  and  somewhat  stern,  even  when 
merciful  and  bounteous,  inclined  to  boisteroushess 
and  violence  and  often  to  cruelty,  is  well  set  ofT,  or 
rather  completed  and  moderated,  by  the  feminine 
nature,  not  less  active,  but  more  quietly  so,  dispens- 


BAB  YLON/AiV  RELIGION. 


243 


ing  gentle   influences,  open  to   milder  moods,  more 
uniformly  soft  in  feeling  and  manner.   . 

II.  In  no  relation  of  life  is  the  difference,  yet 
harmony,  of  masculine  and  feminine  action  so  plain 
as  in  that  between  husband  and  wife,    father  and 


59. A    BUST    INSCRIBED    WITH    THE    NAME    OF    NEBO. 

(British  Museum.) 

mother.  It  requires  no  very  great  effort  of  imag- 
ination to  carry  the  distinction  beyond  the  bounds 
of  animated  nature,  into  the  world  at  large.  To 
men  for  whom  every  portion  or  force  of  the  universe 
was  endowed  with  a  particle   of  the   divine  nature 


244 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


and  power,  many  were  the  things  which  seemed  to 
be  paired  in  a  contrasting,  yet  joint  action  similar 
to  that  of  the  sexes.  If  the  great  and  distant 
Heaven  appeared  to  them  as  the  universal  ruler  and 
lord,  the  source  of  all  things — the  Father  of  the 
Gods,  as  they  put  it — surely  the  beautiful  Earth, 
kind  nurse,  nourisher  and  preserver  of  all  things  th;it 
have  life,  could  be  called  the  universal  Mother.  If 
the  fierce  summer  and  noonday  sun  could  be  looked 
on  as  the  resistless  conqueror,  the  dread  King  of 
the  world,  holding  death  and  disease  in  his  hand, 
was  not  the  quiet,  lovely  moon,  of  mild  and  sooth- 
ing light,  bringing  the  rest  of  coolness  and  healing 
dews,  its  gentle  Queen?  In  short,  there  is  not  a 
power  or  a  phenomenon  of  nature  which  does  not 
present  to  a  poetical  imagination  a  twofold  aspect, 
answering  to  the  standard  masculine  and  feminine 
qualities  and  peculiarities.  The  ancient  thinkers — 
priests — who  framed  the  vague  guesses  of  the  grop- 
ing, dreaming  mind  into  schemes  and  systems  of 
profound  meaning,  expressed  this  sense  of  the  two- 
fold nature  of  things  by  worshipping  a  double  di- 
vine being  or  principle,  masculine  and  feminine. 
Thus  every  god  was  supplied  with  a  wife,  through 
the  entire  series  of  divine  emanations  and  manifes- 
tations. And  as  all  the  gods  were  in  reality  only 
different  names  and  forms  of  the  Supreme  and  Un- 
fathomable One,  so  all  the  goddesses  represent 
only  Belit,  the  great  feminine  principle  of  nature 
— productiveness,  maternity,  tenderness — also  con- 
tained, like  everything  else,  in  that  OXE,  and  ema- 
nating   from    it    in    endless    succession.      Hence    it 


BABYLONIAN  RELIGION.  245 

comes  that  the  goddesses  of  the  Chaldeo-Rabylo- 
nian  religion,  though  different  in  name  and  appar- 
ently in  attributions,  become  wonderfully  alike 
when  looked  at  closer.  They  are  all  more  or  less 
repetitions  of  Belit,  the  wife  of  Bel.  Her  name 
— which  is  only  the  feminine  form  of  the  god's, 
meaning  "  the  Lady,"  as  Bel  means  "  the  Lord," — 
suf^ciently  shows  that  the  two  are  really  one.  Of 
the  other  goddesses  the  most  conspicuous  are  Anat 
or  Nana  (Earth),  the  wife  of  Anu  (Heaven),  An- 
UNIT  (the  Moon),  wife  of  Shamash  (the  Sun),  and 
lastly  ISHTAR,  the  ruler  of  the  planet  Venus  in  her 
own  right,  and  by  far  the  most  attractive  and  in- 
teresting of  the  list.  She  was  a  great  favorite,  wor- 
shipped as  the  Queen  of  Love  and  Beauty,  and  also 
as  the  Warrior-Queen,  who  rouses  men  to  deeds  of 
bravery,  inspirits  and  protects  them  in  battle — per- 
haps because  men  have  often  fought  and  made  war 
for  the  love  of  women,  and  also  probably  because 
the  planet  Venus,  her  own  star,  appears  not  only 
in  the  evening,  close  after  sunset,  but  also  immedi- 
ately before  daybreak,  and  so  seems  to  summon  the 
human  race  to  renewed  efforts  and  activity.  Ishtar 
could  not  be  an  exception  to  the  general  principle 
and  remain  unmated.  But  her  husband,  DUMUZ  (a 
name  for  the  Sun),  stands  to  her  in  an  entirely 
subordinate  position,  and,  indeed,  would  be  but  lit- 
tle known  were  it  not  for  a  beautiful  story  that  was 
told  of  them  in  a  very  old  poem,  and  which  will  find 
its  place  among  many  more  in  the  next  chapter. 

12.  It  would  be  tedious  and  unnecessary  to  recite 
here  more   names  of  gods  and  goddesses,   though 


246 


THE  STORY  OF  CI/ALDEA. 


there  are  quite  a  number,  and  more  come  to  light 
all  the  time  as  new  tablets  are  discovered  and  read. 
Most  of  them  are  in  reality  only  different  names  for 
the  same  conceptions,  and  the  Chaldeo-Babylonian 
pantheon — or  assembly  of  divine  persons — is  very 
sufficiently  represented  by  the  so-called  "  twelve 
great  gods,"  who  were  universally  acknowledged  to 
be  at  its  head,  and  of  whom  we  will  here  repeat  the 
names  :  Anu,  Ea  and  BEL,  SiN,  Shamash  and  RA- 
MAN, NiNDAR,  Maruduk,  Nergal,  Nebo,  Belit 
and  Ishtar.  Each  had  numerous  temples  all  over 
the  country.  But  every  great  city  had  its  favor- 
ite whose  temple  was  the  oldest,  largest  and  most 
sumptuous,  to  whose  worship  it  was  especially  de- 
voted from  immemorial  times.  Ea,  the  most  be- 
loved god  of  old  Shumir,  had  his  chief  sanctuary, 
which  he  shared  with  his  son  Meridug,  at  Eridhu 
("  the  Good  City  "),  the  most  southern  and  almost 
the  most  ancient  city  of  Shumir,  situated  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Euphrates,  since  the  Persian  Gulf 
reached  quite  as  far  inland  in  the  year  4000  B.C., 
and  this  was  assuredly  an  appropriate  station  for 
the  great  "  lord  of  the  deep,"  the  Fish-god  Cannes, 
who  emerged  from  the  waters  to  instruct  man- 
kind. Ur,  as  we  have  seen,  was  the  time-hon- 
ored seat  of  the  Moon-god.  At  Erech  Anu  and 
Anat  or  Nana — Heaven  and  Earth — were  specially 
honored  from  the  remotest  antiquity,  being  jointly 
worshipped  in  the  temple  called  "  the  House  of 
Heaven."  This  may  have  been  the  reason  of  the 
particular  sacredness  attributed  to  the  ground  all 
around  Erech,  as  witnessed  by  the  exceeding  per- 


BABVLOA'/AN  RELIGION. 


247 


sistency  with  which  people  strove  for  ages  to  bury 
their  dead  in  it,  as  though  under  the  immediate  pro- 
tection of  the  goddess  of  Earth*  (see  Ch.  III.  of  In- 
troduction). Larsam  paid  especial  homage  to  Sha- 
mash  and  was  famous  for  its  very  ancient  "  House 
of  the  Sun."  The  Sun  and  Moon — Shamash  and 
Anunit — had  their  rival  sanctuaries  at  SiPPARA  on 
the  "  Royal  Canal,"  which  ran  nearly  parallel  to  the 
Euphrates,  and  Agade,  the  city  of  Sargon,  situated 
just  opposite  on  the  other  bank  of  the  canal.  The 
name  of  Agade  was  lost  in  the  lapse  of  time,  both 
cities  became  one,  the  two  portions  being  distin- 
guished only  by  the  addition  "  Sippara  of  the  Sun" 
and  "  Sippara  of  Anunit."  The  Hebrews  called  the 
united  city  "  The  two  Sipparas  " — Sepharvaim,  the 
name  we  find  in  the  Bible. 

13.  The  site  of  this  important  city  was  long 
doubtful;  but  in  1881  one  of  the  most  skilful  and 
indefatigable  searchers,  Mr.  Hormuzd  Rassam,  a 
gentleman  who  began  his  career  as  assistant  to  Lay- 
ard,  made  a  discovery  which  set  the  question  at 
rest.  He  was  digging  in  a  mound  known  to  the 
Arabs  by  the  name  of  Abu-Habba,  and  had  made 
his  way  into  the  apartments  of  a  vast  structure 
which  he  knew  to  be  a  temple.  From  room  to 
room  he  passed  until  he  came  to  a  smaller  cham- 
ber, paved  with  asphalt,  which  he  at  once  surmised 
to  be  the  archive-room  of  the  temple.  "  Hereto- 
fore," says  Mr.   Rassam   in    his   report,   "  all    Assy- 

*  It  was  the  statue  of  this  very  goddess  Nana  which  was  carried 
away  by  the  Elamite  conqueror,  Khudur-Nankhundi  in  2280  B.C.  and 
restored  to  its  place  by  Assurbanipal  in  645  B.C. 


248  T^^  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

rian  and  Babylonian  structures  were  found  to  be 
paved  generally  either  with  stone  or  brick,  con- 
sequently this  novel  discovery  led  me  to  have  the 
asphalt  broken  into  and  examined.  On  doing  so 
we  found,  buried  in  a  corner  of  the  chamber,  about 
three  feet  below  the  surface,  an  inscribed  earthen- 
ware coffer,  inside  which  was  deposited  a  stone 
tablet.  .  .  ."  Rassam  had  indeed  stumbled  on  the 
archive  of  the  famous  Sun-temple,  as  was  proved 
not  only  by  the  tablet,  but  b}'  the  numerous  docu- 
ments which  accompanied  it,  and  which  gave  the 
names  of  the  builders  and  restorers  of  the  temple. 
As  to  the  tablet,  it  is  the  finest  and  best  preserved 
work  of  art  of  the  kind  which  has  )'et  been  found. 
It  was  deposited  about  the  year  880  B.C.  on  occasion 
of  a  restoration,  and  represents  the  god  himself, 
seated  on  a  throne,  receiving  the  homage  of  wor- 
shippers, while  above  him  the  sun-disc  is  held  sus- 
pended from  heaven  on  two  strong  cords,  like  a  gi- 
gantic lamp,  by  two  ministering  beings,  who  may 
very  probably  belong  to  the  host  of  Igigi  or  spirits 
of  heaven.  The  inscription,  in  beautifully  clear  and 
perfectly  preserved  characters,  informs  us  that  this 
is  "  The  image  of  Shamash,  the  great  lord,  who 
dwells  in  the  '  House  of  the  Sun,*  {E-Babbard) 
which  is  within  the  city  of  Sippar."*  (See  Front- 
ispiece.) This  was  a  truly  magnificent  find,  and 
who  knows  but  something  as  unexpected  and  as 
conclusive  may  turn  up    to    fix    for    us    the    exact 

*  The  three  circles  above  the  god  represent  the  Moon-god,  the  Sun- 
god,  and  Ishtar.  So  we  are  informed  by  the  two  lines  of  writing 
which  run  above  the  roof. 


BAB  YL  ONI  AN  REL IGION.  340 

place  of  the  temple  of  Anunit,  and  consequently 
of  the  venerable  city  of  Agade.  As  to  Baby- 
lon, it  was  originally  placed  under  divine  pro- 
tection generally,  as  shown  by  its  proper  Semitic 
name,  Baeilu,  which  means,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  ''the  Gate  of  God,"  and  exactly  answers  to  the 
Shumiro-Accadian  name  of  the  city  (Ka-Dingirra, 
or  Ka-Dimirra)  ;  but  later  on  it  elected  a  special 
protector  in  the  person  of  Maruduk,  the  old  favor- 
ite, Meridug.  When  Babylon  became  the  capital 
of  the  united  monarchy  of  Shumir  and  Accad,  its 
patron  divinity,  under  the  name  of  BeL-Maruduk, 
("  the  Lord  Maruduk  ")  rose  to  a  higher  rank  than 
he  had  before  occupied  ;  his  temple  outshone  all 
others  and  becam.e  a  wonder  of  the  world  for  its 
wealth  and  splendor.  He  had  another,  scarcely  less 
splendid,  and  founded  by  Hammurabi  himself  in 
Borsippa.  In  this  way  religion  was  closely  allied  to 
politics.  For  in  the  days  before  the  reunion  of  the 
great  cities  under  the  rule  of  Hammurabi,  whichever 
of  them  was  the  most  powerful  at  the  time,  its 
priests  naturally  claimed  the  pre-eminence  for  their 
local  deity  even  beyond  their  own  boundaries.  So 
that  the  fact  of  the  old  Kings  of  Ur,  Ur-ea  and 
his  descendants,  not  limiting  themselves  to  the 
worship  of  their  national  Moon-god,  but  building 
temples  in  many  places  and  to  many  gods,  was  per- 
haps a  sign  of  a  conciliating  general  policy  as  much 
as  of  liberal  religious  feeling. 

14.  One  would  think  that  so  very  perfect  a  system 
of  religion,  based  too  on  so  high  and  noble  an  order 
of  ideas,  should  have  entirely  superseded  the  coarse 


250 


THE  STORY  OT  CHALDEA. 


materialism  and  conjuring  practices  of  the  goblin- 
creed  of  the  primitive  Turanian  settlers.  Such, 
however,  was  far  from  being  the  case.  We  saw  that 
the  new  religion  made  room,  somewhat  contempt- 
uously perhaps,  for  the  spirits  of  the  old  creed, 
carelessly  massing  them  wholesale  into  a  sort  of 
regiment,  composed  of  the  three  hundred  Igigi,  or 
spirits  of  heaven,  and  the  six  hundred  Anunnaki, 
or  spirits  of  earth.  The  conjurers  and  sorcerers 
of  old  were  even  admitted  into  the  priesthood  in  an 
inferior  capacity,  as  a  sort  of  lower  order,  probably 
more  tolerated  than  encouraged — tolerated  from 
necessity,  because  the  people  clung  to  their  an- 
cient beliefs  and  practices.  But  if  their  of^cial  po- 
sition as  a  class  really  were  subordinate,  their  real 
power  was  not  the  less  great,  for  the  public  favor 
and  credulity  were  on  their  side,  and  they  were 
assuredly  more  generally  popular  than  the  learned 
and  solemn  priests,  the  counsellors  and  almost  the 
equals  of  the  kings,  whose  thoughts  dwelt  among 
the  stars,  who  reverently  searched  the  heavens  for 
revelations  of  the  divine  will  and  wisdom,  and  who, 
by  pursuing  accurate  observation  and  mathematical 
calculation  together  with  the  wildest  dreams,  made 
astronomy  and  astrology  the  inextricable  tangle  of 
scientific  truth  and  fantastic  speculation  that  we 
see  it  in  the  great  work  (in  seventy  tablets)  pre- 
pared for  the  library  of  Sargon  at  Agade.  That  the 
ancient  system  of  conjuring  and  incantations  re- 
mained in  full  force  and  general  use,  is  sufificiently 
proved  by  the  contents  of  the  first  two  parts  of  the 
great  collection  in  two  hundred  tablets  compiled  in 


BABYLONIAN  RELIGION. 


251 


the  reign  of  the  same  king,  and  from  the  care  with 
which  the  work  was  copied  and  recopied,  com- 
mented on  and  translated  in  later  ages,  as  we  see 
from  the  copy  made  for  the  Royal  Library  at  Nin- 
eveh, the  one- which  has  reached  us. 

15.  There  was  still  a  third  branch  of  so-called 
"  science,"  which  greatly  occupied  the  minds  of  the 
Chaldeo-Babylonians  from  their  earliest  times  down 
to  the  latest  days  of  their  existence  :  it  was  the  art 
of  Divination,  i.e.,  of  divining  and  foretelling  future 
events  from  signs  and  omens,  a  superstition  born  of 
the  old  belief  in  every  object  of  inanimate  nature 
being  possessed  or  inhabited  by  a  spirit,  and  the 
later  belief  in  a  higher  power  ruling  the  world 
and  human  affairs  to  the  smallest  detail,  and  con- 
stantly manifesting  itself  through  all  things  in  na- 
ture as  through  secondary  agents,  so  that  nothing 
whatever  could  occur  without  some  deeper  signifi- 
cance, which  might  be  discovered  and  expounded  by 
specially  trained  and  favored  individuals.  In  the 
case  of  atmospheric  prophecies  concerning  weather 
and  crops,  as  connected  with  the  appearance  of 
clouds,  sky  and  moon,  the  force  and  direction  of 
winds,  etc.,  there  may  have  been  some  real  observa- 
tion to  found  them  on.  But  it  is  very  clear  that 
such  a  conception,  if  carried  out  consistently  to  ex- 
treme lengths  and  applied  indiscriminately  to  cvery- 
thmg,  must  result  in  arrant  folly.  Such  was  as- 
suredly the  case  with  the  Chaldeo-Babylonians,  who 
not  only  carefully  noted  and  explained  dreams, 
drew  lots  in  doubtful  cases  by  means  of  inscribed 
arrows,  interpreted  the  rustle  of  trees,  the  plashing 


252  TWi?  STORY  OF  CHALDF.A. 

of  fountains  and  murmur  of  streams,  the  direction 
and  form  of  Ii<^htnings,  not  only  fancied  that  they 
could  see  things  in  bowls  of  water  and  in  the  shift- 
ing forms  assumed  by  the  flame  which  consumed 
sacrifices,  and  the  smoke  which  rose  therefrom,  and 
that  they  could  "raise  and  question  the  spirits  of  the 
dead,  but  drew  presages  and  omens,  for  good  or 
evil,  from  the  flight  of  birds,  the  appearance  of  the 
liver,  lungs,  heart  and  bowels  of  the  animals  offered 
in  sacrifice  and  opened  for  inspection,  from  the 
natural  defects  or  monstrosities  of  babies  or  the 
young  of  animals — in  short,  from  any  and  every- 
thing that  they  could  possibly  subject  to  observa- 
tion. 

16.  This  idlest  of  all  kinds  of  speculation  was  re- 
duced to  a  most  minute  and  apparently  scientific 
system  quite  as  early  as  astrology  and  incantation, 
and  forms  the  subject  of  a  third  collection,  in  about 
one  hundred  tablets,  and  probably  compiled  by 
those  same  indefatigable  priests  of  Agade  for  Sar- 
gon,  who  was  evidently  of  a  most  methodical  turn 
of  mind,  and  determined  to  have  all  the  traditions 
and  the  results  of  centuries  of  observation  and 
practical  experiences  connected  with  any  branch  of 
religious  science  fixed  forever  in  the  shape  of  thor- 
oughly classified  rules,  for  the  guidance  of  priests 
for  all  coming  ages.  This  collection  has  come  to 
us  in  an  even  more  incomplete  and  mutilated  con- 
dition than  the  others  ;  but  enough  has  been  pre- 
served to  show  us  that  a  right-thinking  and  relig- 
iously-given Chaldeo-Rabylonian  must  have  spent 
his  life   taking  notes   of  the   absurdest  trifles,  and 


BAB  YL  ONI  AN  RELIGION.  253 

questioning  the  diviners  and  priests  about  them,  in 
order  not  to  get  into  scrapes  by  misinterpreting  the 
signs  and  taking  that  to  be  a  favorable  omen  which 
boded  dire  calamity — or  the  other  way,  and  thus 
doing  things  or  leaving  them  undone  at  the  wrong 
moment  and  in  the  wrong  way.  What  excites, 
perhaps,  even  greater  wonder,  is  the  utter  absurdity 
of  some  of  the  incidents  gravely  set  down  as  affect- 
ing the  welfare,  not  only  of  individuals,  but  of  the 
whole  country.  What  shall  we  say,  for  instance, 
of  the  importance  attached  to  the  proceedings  of 
stray  dogs?  Here  are  some  of  the  items  as  given 
by  Mr.  Fr.  Lenormant  in  his  most  valuable  and 
entertaining  book  on  Chaldean  Divination:  — 

"  If  a  gray  dog  enter  the  palace,  the  latter  will  be 
consumed  by  flames. — If  a  yellow  dog  enter  the  pal- 
ace, the  latter  will  perish  in  a  violent  catastrophe. — 
If  a  taAvny  dog  enter  the  palace,  peace  will  be  con- 
cluded with  the  enemies. — If  a  dog  enter  the  palace 
and  be  not  killed,  the  peace  of  the  palace  will  be 
disturbed. — If  a  dog  enter  the  temple,  the  gods  will 
have  no  mercy  on  the  land. — If  a  white  dog  enter 
the  temple,  its  foundations  will  subsist. — If  a  black 
dog  enter  the  temple,  its  foundations  will  be 
shaken. — If  a  gray  dog  enter  the  temple,  the  latter 
will  lose  its  possessions.  ...  If  dogs  assemble  in 
troops  and  enter  the  temple,  no  one  will  remain  in 
authority.  ...  If  a  dog  vomits  in  a  house,  the 
master  of  that  house  will  die." 

17.  The  chapter  on  monstrous  births  is  extensive. 
Not  only  is  every  possible  anomaly  registered,  from 
an  extra   finger  or  toe  to  an  ear  smaller  than  the 


2  54  "^^'^  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

Other,  with  its  corresponding  presage  of  good  or 
evil  to  the  country,  the  king,  the  army,  but  the  most 
impossible  monstrosities  are  seriously  enumerated, 
with  the  political  conditions  of  which  they  are  sup- 
posed to  be  the  signs.  For  instance  : — If  a  woman 
give  birth  to  a  child  with  lion's  ears,  a  mighty  king 
will  rule  the  land  .  .  .  with  a  bird's  beak,  there  will 
be  peace  in  the  land.  ...  If  a  queen  give  birth  to 
a  child  with  a  lion's  face,  the  king  will  have  no 
rival  ,  .  .  if  to  a  snake,  the  king  will  be  m-ighty.  .  .  . 
If  a  mare  give  birth  to  a  foal  with  a  lion's  mane, 
the  lord  of  the  land  will  annihilate  his  enemies  .  .  . 
with  a  dog's  paws,  the  land  will  be  diminished  .  ,  . 
with  a  lion's  paws,  the  land  will  be  increased.  .  ."l  If 
a  sheep  give  birth  to  a  lion,  there  will  be  war,  the 
king  will  have  no  rival.  ...  If  a  mare  give  birth  to 
a  dog,  there  will  be  disaster  and  famine." 

i8.  The  three  great  branches  of  religious  science 
— astrology,  incantation  and  divination — were  rep- 
resented by  three  corresponding  classes  of  "wise 
men,"  all  belonging,  in  different  degrees,  to  the 
priesthood  :  the  star-gazers  or  astrologers,  the  magi- 
cians or  sorcerers,  and  the  soothsayers  or  fortune- 
tellers. The  latter,  again,  were  divided  into  many 
smaller  classes  according  to  the  particular  kind  of 
divination  which  they  practised.  Some  specially 
devoted  themselves  to  the  interpretation  of  dreams, 
others  to  that  of  the  flight  of  birds,  or  of  the  signs 
of  the  atmosphere,  or  of  casual  signs  and  omens 
generally.  All  were  in  continual  demand,  consulted 
alike  by  kings  and  private  persons,  and  all  proceeded 
in    strict  accordance  with  the  rules   and   principles 


BAB YLONIAN  RELIGION.  2^.^ 

laid  down  in  the  three  great  works  of  King  Sargon's 
time.  When  the  Babylonian  empire  ceased  to  exist 
and  the  Chaldeans  were  no  longer  a  nation,  these 
secret  arts  continued  to  be  practised  by  them,  and 
the  name  "  Chaldean  "  became  a  by-word,  a  syno- 
nym for  "  a  wise  man  of  the  East," — astrologer, 
magician  or  soothsayer.  They  dispersed  all  over 
the  world,  carrying  their  delusive  science  with  them, 
practising  and  teaching  it,  welcomed  everywhere  by 
the  credulous  and  superstitious,  often  highly  hon- 
ored and  always  richly  paid.  Thus  it  is  from  the 
Chaldeans  and  their  predecessors  the  Shumiro- 
Accads  that  the  belief  in  astrology,  witchcraft  and 
every  kind  of  fortune-telling  has  been  handed  down 
to  the  nations  of  Europe,  together  with  the  prac- 
tices belonging  thereto,  many  of  which  we  find  lin- 
gering even  to  our  day  among  the  less  educated 
classes.  The  very  words  "  magic"  and  "  magician  " 
are  probably  an  inheritance  of  that  remotest  of 
antiquities.  One  of  the  words  for  "  priest  "  in  the 
old  Turanian  tongue  of  Shumir  was  imga,  which,  in 
the  later  Semitic  language,  became  mag.  The  Rab- 
inag — •"  great  priest,"  or  perhaps  "  chief  conjurer," 
was  a  high  functionary  at  the  court  of  the  Assyrian 
kings.  Hence  "  magus,"  "  magic,"  "  magician,"  in 
all  the  European  languages,  from  Latin  downward. 
19.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  we  have  no  rea- 
son to  be  grateful  for  such  an  heirloom  as  this  mass 
of  superstitions,  which  have  produced  so  much  evil 
in  the  world  and  still  occasionally  do  mischief 
enough.  But  we  must  not  forget  to  set  ofT  against 
it  the  many  excellent   things,  most   important   dis- 


256  THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

coveries  in  the  province  of  astronomy  and  mathe- 
matics which  have  come  to  us  from  the  same  dis- 
tant source.  To  the  ancient  Chaldeo-Babylonians 
we  owe  not  only  our  division  of  time,  but  the  inven- 
tion of  the  sun-dial,  and  the -week  of  seven  days, 
dedicated  in  succession  to  the  Sun,  the  Moon,  and 
the  five  planets — an  arrangement  which  is  still 
maintained,  the  names  of  our  days  being  merely 
translations  of  the  Chaldean  ones.  And  more  than 
that  ;  there  were  days  set  apart  and  kept  holy,  as 
days  of  rest,  as  far  back  as  the  time  of  Sargon  of 
Agade ;  it  was  from  the  Semites  of  Babylonia — per- 
haps the  Chaldeans  of  Ur — that  both  the  name  and 
the  observance  passed  to  the  Hebrew  branch  of  the 
race,  the  tribe  of  Abraham.  George  Smith  found 
an  Assyrian  calendar  where  the  da\-  called  Sabattu 
or  Sabattiiv  is  explained  to  mean  "  completion  of 
work,  a  day  of  rest  for  the  soul."  On  this  day,  it 
appears  it  was  not  lawful  to  cook  food,  to  change 
one's  dress,  to  offer  a  sacrifice  ;  the  king  was  for- 
bidden to  speak  in  public,  to  ride  in  a  chariot,  to 
perform  any  kind  of  military  or  civil  duty,  even  to 
take  medicine.*  This,  surely,  is  a  keeping  of  the 
Sabbath  as  strict  as  the  most  orthodox  Jew  could 
w^ell  desire.  There  are,  however,  essential  differences 
between  the  two.  In  the  first  place,  the  Babyloni- 
ans kept  five  Sabbath  days  every  month,  which 
made  more  than  one  a  week;  in  the  second  place, 

*  Friedrich  Deletzsch,  "  Beigaben  "  to  the  German  translat.  of 
Smith's  "  Chaldean  Genesis  "  (1S76),  p.  300.  A.  H.  Sayce,  "  The  An- 
cient Empires  of  the  East  "  ( 1883),  P-  4°--  ^ •  Lotz,  "  Quaestiones  de 
Historia  Sabbati." 


BA  B  YL  ON  I  A  N  RELIGION.  257 

they  came  round  on  certain  dates  of  each  month, 
independently  of  the  day  of  the  week :  on  the  7th, 
14th,  19th,  2 1st  and  28th.  The  custom  appears  to 
have  passed  to  the  Assyrians,  and  there  are  indica- 
tions which  encourage  the  supposition  that  it  was 
shared  by  other  nations  connected  with  the  Jews, 
the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians,  for  instance,  by  the 
Phoenicians. 


VI. 

LEGENDS  AND   STORIES. 

I,  In  every  child's  life  there  comes  a  moment 
when  it  ceases  to  take  the  world  and  all  it  holds  as 
a  matter  of  course,  when  it  begins  to  wpnder  and  to 
question.  The  first,  the  great  question  naturally 
is — "  Who  made  it  all?  The  sun,  the  stars,  the  sea, 
the  rivers,  the  flowers,  and  the  trees — whence  come 
they?  who  made  them?"  And  to  this  question  we 
are  very  ready  with  our  answer: — "God  made  it 
all.  The  One,  the  Almighty  God  created  the 
world,  and  all  that  is  in  it,  by  His  own  sovereign 
will."  When  the  child  further  asks :  '' Hoiu  did  He 
do  it?"  we  read  to  it  the  story  of  the  Creation 
%vhich  is  the  beginning  of  the  Bible,  our  Sacred 
Book,  either  without  any  remarks  upon  it,  or  with 
the  warning,  that,  for  a  full  and  proper  understand- 
ing of  it,  years  are  needed  and  knowledge  of  many 
kinds.  Now,  these  same  questions  have  been 
asked,  by  children  and  men,  in  all  ages.  Ever  since 
man  has  existed  upon  the  earth,  ever  since  he  be- 
gan, in  the  intervals  of  rest,  in  the  hard  labor  and 
struggle  for  life  and  limb,  for  food  and  warmth,  to 
raise  his  head  and  look  abroad,  and  take  in  the 
wonders  that  surrounded  him,  he  has  thus  pondered 

258 


LEGENDS  AND  STORIES. 


259 


and  questioned.  And  to  this  questioning,  each 
nation,  after  its  own  lights,  has  framed  very  much 
the  same  answer;  the  same  in  substance  and  spirit 
(because  the  only  possible  one),  acknowledging  the 
agency  of  a  Divine  Power,  in  filling  the  world  with 
life,  and  ordaining  the  laws  of  nature, — but  often 
very  different  in  form,  since,  almost  every  creed 
having  stopped  short  of  the  higher  religious  con- 
ception, that  of  One  Deity,  indivisible  and  all-power- 
ful, the  great  act  was  attributed  to  many  gods — 
"  the  gods," — not  to  God.  This  of  course  opened 
the  way  to  innumerable,  more  or  less  ingenious, 
fancies  and  vagaries  as  to  the  part  played  in  it  by 
this  or  that  particular  divinity.  Thus  all  races, 
nations,  even  tribes  have  worked  out  for  themselves 
their  own  COSMOGONY,  i.e.,  their  own  ideas  on  the 
Origin  of  the  World.  The  greatest  number,  not 
having  reached  a  very  high  stage  of  culture  or 
attained  literary  skill,  preserved  the  teachings  of 
their  priests  in  their  memory,  and  transmitted  them 
orally  from  father  to  son ;  such  is  the  case  even 
now  with  many  more  peoples  than  we  think  of — 
with  all  the  native  tribes  of  Africa,  the  islanders  of 
Australia  and  the  Pacific,  and  several  others.  But 
the  nations  who  advanced  intellectually  to  the  front 
of  mankind  and  influenced  the  long  series  of  coming 
races  by  their  thoughts  and  teachings,  recorded  in 
books  the  conclusions  they  had  arrived  at  on  the 
great  questions  which  have  always  stirred  the 
heart  and  mind  of  man ;  these  were  carefully  pre- 
served and  recopied  from  time  to  time,  for  the  in- 
struction   of    each    rising    generation.     Thus   many 


26o  THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

great  nations  of  olden  times  have  possessed  Sacred 
Books,  which,  having  been  written  in  remote  an- 
tiquity by  their  best  and  wisest  men,  were  rev- 
erenced as  something  not  only  holy,  but  beyond 
the  unassisted  powers  of  the  human  intellect,  some- 
thing imparted,  revealed  directly  by  the  deity  itself, 
and  therefore  to  be  accepted,  undisputed,  as  abso- 
lute truth.  It  is  clear  that  it  was  in  the  interest  of 
the  priests,  the  keepers  and  teachers  of  all  religious 
knowledge,  to  encourage  and  maintain  in  the  peo- 
ple at  large  this  unquestioning  belief. 

2.  Of  all  such  books  that  have  become  known  to 
us,  there  are  none  of  greater  interest  and  import- 
ance than  the  sacred  books  of  Ancient  Babylonia. 
Not  merely  because  they  are  the  oldest  known, 
having  been  treasured  in  the  priestly  libraries  of 
Agade,  Sippar,  Cutha,  etc.,  at  the  incredibly  early 
date  of  about  4000  B.C.,  but  because  the  ancestors 
of  the  Hebrews,  during  their  long  station  in  the 
land  of  Shinar,  learned  the  legends  and  stories  they 
contained,  and  working  them  over  after  their  own 
superior  religious  lights,  remodelled  them  into  the 
narrative  which  was  written  down  many  centuries 
later  as  part  of  the  Book  of  Genesis. 

3.  The  original  sacred  books  were  attributed  to 
the  god  Ea  himself,  the  impersonation  of  the  Di- 
vine Intelligence,  and  the  teacher  of  mankind  in  the 
shape  of  the  first  Man-Fish,  Oannes — (the  name 
being  only  a  Greek  corruption  of  the  Accadian  Ea- 
HAN,  "  Ea  the   Fish").*     So    Berosus    informs  us. 

*  See  Fr.  Lenormant,  "  Die  Magie  und  Wahrsagekunst  der  Chal- 
daer,"  p.  377. 


LEGENDS  AND  STORIES.  261 

After  describing  Oannes  and  his  proceedings  (see 
p.  185),  he  adds  that  "  he  wrote  a  Book  on  the  Origin 
of  things  and  the  beginnings  of  civilization,  and  gave 
it  to  men."  The  "origin  of  things"  is  the  history 
of  the  Creation  of  the  world,  Cosmogony.  Accord- 
ingly, this  is  what  Berosus  proceeds  to  expound, 
quoting  directly  from  the  Book,  for  he  begins: — 
"  There  was  a  time,  says  he,  (meaning  Oannes)  when 
all  was  darkness  and  water."  Then  follows  a  very 
valuable  fragment,  but  unfortunately  only  a  frag- 
ment, one  of  the  few  preserved  by  later  Greek  writers 
who  quoted  the  old  priest  of  Babylon  for  their  own 
purposes,  while  the  work  itself  was,  in  some  way, 
destroyed  and  lost.  True,  these  fragments  contain 
short  sketches  of  several  of  the  most  important 
legends ;  still,  precious  as  they  are,  they  convey 
only  second-hand  information,  compiled,  indeed, 
from  ori'ginal  sources  by  a  learned  and  conscien- 
tious writer,  but  for  the  use  of  a  foreign  race,  ex- 
tremely compressed,  and,  besides,  with  the  names 
all  altered  to  suit  that  race's  language.  So  long  as 
the  "original  sources"  were  missing,  there  was  a 
gap  in  the  study  both  of  the  Bible  and  the  religion 
of  Babylon,  which  no  ingenuity  could  fill.  Great, 
therefore,  were  the  delight  and  excitement,  both 
of  Assyriologists  and  Bible  scholars,  when  George 
Smith,  while  sorting  the  thousands  of  tablet-frag- 
ments which  for  years  had  littered  the  floor  of 
certain  remote  chambers  of  the  British  Museum, 
accidentally  stumbled  on  some  which  were  evidently 
portions  of  the  original  sacred  legends  partly  ren- 
dered by  Berosus.     To  search  for  all  available  frag- 


262 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


merits  of  the  precious  documents  and  piece  them 
together  became  the  task  of  Smith's  life.  And  as 
nearly  all  that  he  found  belonged  to  copies  from 
the    Royal    Library  at   Nineveh,   it  was   chiefly  in 


order  to  enlarge  the  collection  that  he  undertook 
his  first  expedition  to  the  Assyrian  mounds,  from 
which  he  had  the  good  fortune  to  bring  back  many 
missing  fragments,  belonging  also  to  different 
copies,  so  that  one  frequently  completes  the  other. 


LEGENDS  AND  STORIES. 


263 


Thus  the  oldest  Chaldean  legends  were  in  a  great 
measure  restored  to  us,  though  unfortunately  very 
few  tablets  are  in  a  sufficiently  well  preserved  con- 
dition to  allow  of  making  out  an  entirely  intelligible 
and  uninterrupted  narrative.  Not  only  are  many 
parts  still  missing  altogether,  but  of  those  which 
have  been  found,  pieced  and  collected,  there  is  not 
one  of  which  one  or  more  columns  have  not  been 
injured  in  such  a  way  that  either  the  beginning  or 
the  end  of  all  the  lines  are  gone,  or  whole  lines 
broken  out  or  erased,  with  only  a  few  words  left 
here  and  there.  How  hopeless  the  task  must  some- 
times have  seemed  to  the  patient  workers  may 
be  judged  from  the  foregoing  specimen  pieced  to- 
gether of  sixteen  bits,  which  Geo.  Smith  gives  in 
his  book.  This  is  one  of  the  so-called  "  Deluge-tab- 
lets," i.e.,  of  those  which  contain  the  Chaldean  ver- 
sion of  the  story  of  the  Deluge.  Luckily  more 
copies  have  been  found  of  this  story  than  of  any  of 
the  others,  or  we  should  have  had  to  be  content 
still  with  the  short  sketch  of  it  given  by  Berosus. 

4.  If,  therefore,  the  ancient  Babylonian  legends 
of  the  beginnings  of  the  world  will  be  given  here  in 
a  connected  form,  for  the  sake  of  convenience  and 
plainness,  it  must  be  clearly  understood  that  they 
were  not  preserved  for  us  in  such  a  form,  but  are 
the  result  of  a  long  and  patient  work  of  research 
and  restoration,  a  work  which  still  continues ;  and 
every  year,  almost  every  month,  brings  to  light 
some  new  materials,  some  addition,  some  correction 
to  the  old  ones.  Yet  even  as  the  work  now  stands, 
it  justifies  us  in  asserting  that  our  knowledge  of  this 


264 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


marvellous  antiquity  is  fuller  and  more  authentic 
than  that  we  have  of  many  a  period  and  people  not 
half  so  remote  from  us  in  point  of  place  and  dis- 
tance. 

5.  The  cosmogonic  narrative  which  forms  the 
first  part  of  what  Geo.  Smith  has  very  aptly  called 
"  the  Chaldean  Genesis  "  is  contained  in  a  number 
of  tablets.  As  it  begins  by  the  words  "  ]VJic7i 
above,''  they  are  all  numbered  as  No.  i,  or  3,  or  5 
"  of  the  series  WHEN  ABOVE.  The  property  of  As- 
sJmrbanipal,  king  of  nations,  king  of  Assyria''  The 
first  lines  are  intact  : — "  When  the  heaven  above 
and  the  earth  below  were  as  yet  unnamed," — (i.e., 
according  to  Semitic  ideas,  did  not  exist) — APSU 
(the  "Abyss  ")  and  MuMMU-TlAMAT  (the  "  billowy 
Sea  ")  were  the  beginning  of  all  things  ;  their  wa- 
ters mingled  and  flowed  together  ;  that  was  the 
Primeval  Chaos  ;  it  contained  the  germs  of  life  but 
"the  darkness  was  not  lifted  "  from  the  waters,  and 
therefore  nothing  sprouted  or  grew — (for  no  growth 
or  life  is  possible  without  light).  The  gods  also 
were  not  ;  "  they  were  as  yet  unnamed  and  did  not 
rule  the  destinies."  Then  the  great  gods  came 
into  being,  and  the  divine  hosts  of  heaven  and 
earth  (the  Spirits  of  Heaven  and  Earth).  "  And  the 
days  stretched  themselves  out,  and  the  god  Anu 
(Heaven.)  .  .  .  ."  Here  the  text  breaks  off 
abruptly ;  it  is  probable,  however,  that  it  told  how, 
after  a  long  lapse  of  time,  the  gods  Anu,  Ea  and 
Bel,  the  first  and  supreme  triad,  came  into  being. 
The  next  fragment,  which  is  sufficiently  well  pre- 
served to  allow  of  a  connected  translation,  tells  of  the 


LEGENDS  AND  STORIES.  265 

establishment  of  the  heavenly  bodies  :  "  He  "  (Ann, 
whose  particular  dominion  the  highest  heavens  were, 
hence  frequently  called  "  the  heaven  of  Anu  ")  "  he 
appointed  the  mansions  of  the  great  gods  "  (signs 
of  the  Zodiac),  established  the  stars,  ordered  the 
months  and  the  year,  and  limited  the  beginning  and 
end  thereof  ;  established  the  planets,  so  that  none 
should  swerve  from  its  allotted  track;  "he  ap- 
pointed the  mansions  of  Bel  and  Ea  with  his  own  ; 
he  also  opened  the  great  gates  of  heaven,  fastening 
their  bolts  firmly  to  the  right  and  to  the  left  "  (east 
and  west) ;  he  made  Nannar  (the  Moon)  to  shine 
and  allotted  the  night  to  him,  determining  the  time 
of  his  quarters  which  measure  the  days,  and  saying 
to  him  "  rise  and  set,  and  be  subject  to  this  law." 
Another  tablet,  of  which  only  the  beginning  is  in- 
telligible, tells  how  the  gods  (in  the  plural  this 
time)  created  the  living  beings  which  people  the 
earth,  the  cattle  of  the  field  and  the  city,  and  the 
wild  beasts  of  the  field,  and  the  things  that  creep  in 
the  field  and  in  the  city,  in  short  all  the  living  crea- 
tures. 

6.  There  are  some  tablets  which  have  been  sup- 
posed to  treat  of  the  creation  of  man  and  perhaps  to 
give  a  story  of  his  disobedience  and  fall,  answer- 
ing to  that  in  Genesis  ;  but  unfortunately  they  are 
in  too  mutilated  a  condition  to  admit  of  certainty, 
and  no  other  copies  have  as  yet  come  to  light. 
However,  the  probability  that  such  was  really  the 
case  is  very  great,  and  is  much  enhanced  by  a  cylin- 
der of  very  ancient  Babylonian  workmanship,  now 
in  the  British   Museum,  and  too  important   not   to 


266 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


be  reproduced  here.  The  tree  in  the  middle,  the 
human  couple  stretching  out  their  hands  for  the 
fruit,  the  serpent  standing  behind  the  ivonian  in — 
one  might  almost  say — a  whispering  attitude,  all 
this  tells  its  own  tale.  And  the  authority  of  this 
artistic  presentation,  which  so  strangel}'  fits  in  to 
fill  the  blank  in  the  written  narrative,  is  doubled  by 
the  fact  that  the  engra\'ings  on  the  cylinders  are  in- 
variably taken  from  subjects  connected  with  relig- 


6l. — UAUYLONIAN  CYLINDER,  SUPPOSED  TO   REPRESENT   THE 
TEMPTATION    AND   FALL. 


ion,  or  at  least  religious  beliefs  and  traditions.  As 
to  the  creation  of  man,  we  may  partly  eke  out  the 
missing  details  from  the  fragment  of  Berosus  al- 
ready quoted.  He  there  tells  us — and  so  well-in- 
formed a  writer  must  have  spoken  on  good  author- 
it}^ — that  Bel  gave  his  own  blood  to  be  kneaded 
with  the  clay  out  of  which  men  were  formed,  and 
that  is  why  they  are  endowed  with  reason  and  have 
a  share  of  the  divine  nature  in  them — certainly  a 
most  ingenious  way  of  expressing  the  blending  of 
the    earthly    and    the    divine    elements    which    has 


LEGENDS  AND  STORIES. 


26j 

made  human  nature  so  deep  and  puzzling  a  prob- 
lem to  the  profounder  thinkers  of  all  ages. 

7.  For  the  rest  of  the  creation,  Berosus'  account 
(quoted  from  the  book  said  to  have  been  given  men 
by  the  fabulous  Oannes),  agrees  with  what  we  find 
in  the  original  texts,  even  imperfect  as  we  have 
them.  He  says  that  in  the  midst  of  Chaos — at  the 
time  when  all  was  darkness  and  water — the  prin- 
ciple of  life  which  it  contained,  restlessly  working, 
but  without  order,  took  shape  in  numberless  mon- 
strous formations :  there  were  beings  like  men, 
some  winged,  with  two  heads,  some  with  the  legs 
and  horns  of  goats,  others  with  the  hind  part  of 
horses ;  also  bulls  with  human  heads,  dogs  with 
four  bodies  and  a  fish's  tail,  horses  with  the  heads 
of  dogs,  in  short,  every  hideous  and  fantastical 
combination  of  animal  forms,  before  the  Divine 
Will  had  separated  them,  and  sorted  them  into 
harmony  and  order.  All  these  monstrous  beings 
perished  the  moment  Bel  separated  the  heavens 
from  the  earth  creating  light, — for  they  were  births 
of  darkness  and  lawlessness  and  could  not  stand  the 
new  reign  of  light  and  law  and  divine  reason.  In 
memory  of  this  destruction  of  the  old  chaotic  world 
and  production  of  the  new,  harmonious  and  beau- 
tiful one,  the  walls  of  the  famous  temple  of  Bel- 
Mardouk  at  Babylon  were  covered  with  paintings 
representing  the  infinite  variety  of  monstrous  and 
mixed  shapes  with  which  an  exuberant  fancy  had 
peopled  the  primeval  chaos  ;  Berosus  was  a  priest 
of  this  temple  and  he  speaks  of  those  paintings  as 
still    existing.     Though    nothing    has    remained  of 


268  TI^^  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

them  in  the  ruins  of  the  temple,  we  have  represen- 
tations of  the  same  kind  on  many  of  the  cyHnders 
which,  used  as  seals,  did  duty  both  as  personal 
badges — (one  is  almost  tempted  to  say  "  coats  of 
arms  ") — and  as  talismans,  as  proved  by  the  fact  of 
such  cylinders  being  so  frequently  found  on  the 
wrists  of  the  dead  in  the  sepulchres. 

8.  The  remarkable  cylinder  with  the  human  cou- 
ple and  the  serpent  leads  us  to  the  consideration 
of  a  most  important  object  in  the  ancient  Babylo- 
nian or  Chaldean  religion — the  Sacred  Tree,  the 
Tree  of  Life.  That  it  was  a  very  holy  symbol  is 
clear  from  its  being  so  continually  reproduced  on 
cylinders  and  on  sculptures.  In  this  particular 
cylinder,  rude  as  the  design  is,  it  bears  an  un- 
mistakable likeness  to  a  real  tree — of  some  conifer- 
ous species,  cypress  or  fir.  But  art  soon  took  hold 
of  it  and  began  to  load  it  with  symmetrical  embel- 
lishments, until  it  produced  a  tree  of  entirely  conven- 
tional design,  as  shown  by  the  following  specimens, 
of  which  the  first  leans  more  to  the  palm,  while  the 
second  seems  rather  of  the  coniferous  type.  (Figs. 
No.  62  and  64.)  It  is  probable  that  such  artificial 
trees,  made  up  of  boughs — perhaps  of  the  palm  and 
cypress — tied  together  and  intertwined  with  rib- 
bons (something  like  our  Maypoles  of  old),  were  set 
up  in  the  temples  as  reminders  of  the  sacred  sym- 
bol, and  thus  gave  rise  to  the  fixed  type  which  re- 
mains invariable  both  in  such  Babylonian  works  of 
art  as  we  possess  and  on  the  Assyrian  sculptures, 
where  the  tree,  or  a  portion  of  it,  appears  not  only 
in  the  runninfj  ornaments  on  the  walls  but  on  seal 


.ulil^JJIulQi 


?7o 


THE  STONY  OF  Cl/ALDEA. 


cylinders  and  even  in  the  embroidery  on  the  robes 
of  kings.  In  the  latter  case  indeed,  it  is  ahnost 
certain,  from  the  belief  in  talismans  which  the 
Assyrians  had  inherited,  along  \\\\.\\  the  whole  of 
their  religion  from  the  Chaldean  mother  country, 
that  this  ornament  was  selected  not  only  as  ap- 
propriate to  the  sacredness  of  the  royal  person,  but 
as  a  consecration  and  protection.  The  holiness  of 
the  symbol  is  further  evidenced  by  the  kneeling 
posture  of  the  animals  which  sometimes  accompany 
it  (see  Fig.  33,  page  81),  and  the  attitude  of  adora- 
tion of  the  human  fig- 
ures, or  winged  spirits 
attending  it,  by  the 
prevalence  of  the  sa- 
cred number  seven  in  its 
component  parts,  and 
by  the  fact  that  it  is  re- 
63.— WINGED  sriKiTs  BEFORE  THE  produccd  on  a  great 
SACRED  TREE.  many  of    those    glazed 

(Smith's  "  Chaidea.")  earthenware     coffins 

which  arc  so  plentiful  at  Warka  (ancient  Erech). 
This  latter  fact  clearly  shows  that  the  tree-symbol 
not  only  meant  life  in  general,  life  on  earth,  but 
a  hope  of  life  eternal,  beyond  the  grave,  or  why- 
should  it  have  been  given  to  the  dead  ?  These 
cofifins  at  Warka  belong,  it  is  true,  to  a  late  pe- 
riod, some  as  late  as  a  couple  of  hundred  years 
after  Christ,  but  the  ancient  traditions  and  their 
meaning  had,  beyond  a  doubt,  been  preserved. 
Another  significant  detail  is  that  the  cone  is  fre- 
quently seen  in  the  hands  of  men  or  spirits,  and  al- 


\    ^    J 


64.- 


-SARQON    ri.    BEFORE   THE    SACRED   TREE. 
(Perrot  and  Chippiez.) 


2/2  THE  STOKY  OF  CIIALDEA. 

ways  in  a  way  connected  with  worship  or  auspicious 
protection  ;  sometimes  it  is  held  to  the  king's  nos- 
trils by  his  attendant  protecting  spirits,  (known  by 
their  wings);  a  gesture  of  unmistakable  significancy, 
since  in  ancient  languages  "  the  breath  of  the  nos- 
trils "  is  synonymous  with  "  the  breath  of  life." 

9.  There  can  be  no  association  of  ideas  more 
natural  than  that  of  vegetation,  as  represented  by  a 
tree,  with  life.  By  its  perpetual  growth  and  devel- 
opment, its  wealth  of  branches  and  foliage,  its  blos- 
soming and  fruit-bearing,  it  is  a  noble  and  striking 
illustration  of  the  world  in  the  widest  sense — the 
Universe,  the  Cosmos,  while  the  sap  which  courses 
equally  through  the  trunk  and  through  the  veins  of 
the  smallest  leaflet,  drawn  by  an  incomprehensible 
process  through  invisible  roots  from  the  nourishing 
earth,  still  more  forcibly  suggests  that  mysterious 
principle,  Life,  which  we  tJiink  we  understand  be- 
cause we  see  its  effects  and  feel  it  in  ourselves, 
but  the  sources  of  which  will  never  be  reached, 
as  the  problem  of  it  will  never  be  solved,  either 
by  the  prj'ing  of  experimental  science  or  the 
musings  of  contemplative  speculation;  life  eter- 
nal, also, — for  the  workings  of  nature  arc  eternal, 
— and  the  tree  that  is  black  and  lifeless  to-day, 
we  know  from  long  experience  is  not  dead,  but 
will  revive  in  the  fulness  of  time,  and  bud-,  and 
grow  and  bear  again.  All  these  things  ivc  know 
are  the  effects  of  laws ;  but  the  ancients  attributed 
them  to  living  Powers,— the  Chtiionic  Powers 
(from  the  Greek  word  Chthox,  "  earth,  soil  *'), 
which  have  by  some  later  and  dreamy  thinkers  been 


65— EAGLE-HEADED    FIGURE   BEFORE   THE   SACRED   TREE. 
(Smilli's  "Chaldea.") 


274 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


called  weirdly  but  not  unaptly,  "the  Mothers,' 
mysteriously  at  work  in  the  depths  of  silence  and 
darkness,  unseen,  unreachable,  and  inexhaustibly 
productive.  Of  these  powers  again,  what  more  per- 
fect symbol  or  representative  than  the  Tree,  as 
standing  for  vegetation,  one  for  all,  the  part  for  the 
whole?  It  lies  so  near  that,  in  later  times,  it  was 
enlarged,  so  as  to  embrace  the  whole  universe,  in 
the  majestic  conception  of  the  Cosmic  Tree  which 
has  its  roots  on  earth  and  heaven  for  its  crown, 
while  its  fruit  are  the  golden  apples — the  stars,  and 
Fire, — the  red  lightning. 

lo.  All  these  suggestive  and  poetical  fancies  would 
in  themselves  sufificc  to  make  the  tree-symbol  a 
favorite  one  among  so  thoughtful  and  profound  a 
people  as  the  old  Chaldeans.  But  there  is  some- 
thing more.  It  is  intimately  connected  with  an- 
other tradition,  common,  in  some  form  or  other,  to 
all  nations  who  have  attained  a  sufficiently  high 
grade  of  culture  to  make  their  mark  in  the  world 
— that  of  an  original  ancestral  abode,  beautiful, 
happy,  and  remote,  a  Paradise,  It  is  usually  imag- 
ined as  a  great  mountain,  watered  by  springs  which 
become  great  rivers,  bearing  one  or  more  trees  of 
wonderful  properties  and  sacred  character,  and  is 
considered  as  the  principal  residence  of  the  gods. 
Each  nation  locates  it  according  to  its  own  knowl- 
edge of  geography  and  vague,  half-obliterated  mem- 
ories. Many  texts,  both  in  the  old  Accadian  and 
the  Assyrian  languages,  abundantly  prove  that  the 
Chaldean  religion  preserved  a  distinct  and  rever- 
ent conception  of  such  a  mountain,  and  placed  it 


T(i^ 


Imim  'li  111  fMki^^ 


tA> 


66.-FOUR-WINGED    HUMAN    FIGURE    BEFORE   THE   SACRED   TREE. 
(Perrot  and  Chippiez.) 


276 


THE  STORY  OF  CIIAI.DEA. 


in  the  far  north  or  north-east,  calling  it  the  "  Father 
of  Countries,"  plainly  an  allusion  to  the  original 
abode  of  man — the  "  Mountain  of  Countries,"  (i.e., 
"  Chief  Mountain  of  the  World  ")  and  also  AUALLU, 
because  there,  where  the  gods  dwelt,  the}-  also  im- 
agined the  entrance  to  the  Arali  to  be  the  Land  of 
the  Dead.  There,  too,  the  heroes  and  great  men 
were  to  dwell  forever  after  their  death.  There  is 
the  land  with  a  sky  of  silver,  a  soil  which  pro- 
duces crops  without  being  cultivated,  where  bless- 
ings are  for  food  and  rejoicing,  which  it  is  hoped 
the  king  will  obtain  as  a  reward  for  his  piety  af- 
ter having  enjoyed  all  earthly  goods  during  his 
life.*  In  an  old  Accadian  hymn,  the  sacred  mount, 
which  is  identical  with  that  imagined  as  the  pillar 
joining  heaven  and  earth,  the  pillar  around  which 
the  heavenly  spheres  revolve,  (see  page  153) — is 
called  "  the  mountain  of  Bel,  in  the  east,  whose 
double  head  reaches  unto  the  skies  ;  which  is  like 
to  a  mighty  bufTalo  at  rest,  whose  double  horn 
sparkles  as  a  sunbeam,  as  a  star."  So  vivid  was  the 
conception  in  the  popular  mind,  and  so  great  the 
reverence  entertained  for  it,  that  it  was  attempted 
to  reproduce  the  type  of  the  holy  mountain  in  the 
palaces  of  their  kings  and  the  temples  of  their  gods. 
That  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  they  built  both  on 
artificial  hills.  There  is  in  the  British  Museum  a 
sculpture  from  Koyunjik,  representing  such  a  tem- 
ple, or  perhaps  palace,  on  the  summit  of  a  mound, 
converted   into  a  garden   and   watered  by  a  stream 

*  Franfois  Lenormant,  "Origines  de  I'Histoire,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  130. 


LEGENDS  AND  STORIES. 


277 


which  issues  from  the  "  hanging  garden "  on  the 
right,  the  latter  being  laid  out  on  a  platform  of 
masonry  raised  on  arches  ;  the  water  was  brought 
up  by  machinery.     It   is  a  perfect   specimen   of  a 


"  Paradise,"  as  these  artificial  parks  were  called  by 
the  Greeks,  who  took  the  word  (meaning  "  park  " 
or  "  garden  ")  from  the  Persians,  who,  in  their  turn, 
had  borrowed  the  thing  from  the  Assyrians  and 
Baibylonians,  when  they  conquered   the   latter's  em- 


278 


THE  STONY  OF  CHALDEA. 


pire.  The  Zii^i^nrcrt,  or  pyTamidal  construction  in 
stages,  with  the  temple  or  shrine  on  the  top,  also 
owed  its  peculiar  shape  to  the  same  original  concep- 
tion :  as  the  gods  dwelt  on  the  summit  of  the 
Mountain  of  the    World,  so   their   shrines   should 


occupy  a  position  as  much  like  their  residence  as 
the  feeble  means  of  man  would  permit.  That  this 
is  no  idle  fancy  is  proved  by  the  very  name  of  "  Zig- 
gurat,"  which  means  ''  mountain  peak,''  and  also  by 
the  names  of  some  of  these  temples :  one  of  the  old- 


69.— "ziggurat' 


RESTORED,    ACCORDING   TO    PROBABILITIES. 
(Perroi  and  Chippiez.) 


28o  THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

est  and  most  famous  indeed,  in  the  city  of  Asshur, 
was  named  "  the  House  of  the  Mountain  of  Coun- 
tries." Nothing  can  give  a  better  idea  of  the  Ziggu- 
rat,  as  it  must  have  looked  with  its  surroundings, 
than  the  foregoing  representation  of  one  on  a  sculp- 
tured slab,  also  from  Koyunjik.  (Fig.  68.)  It  is  ev- 
idently a  small  one,  of  probably  five  stages  besides 
the  platform  on  which  it  is  built,  with  its  two  sym- 
metrical paths  up  the  ascent.  Some,  like  the  great 
temple  at  Ur,  had  only  three  stages,  others  again 
seven — always  one  of  the  three  sacred  numbers  : 
three,  corresponding  to  the  divine  Triad  ;  five,  to  the 
five  planets ;  seven,  to  the  planets,  sun  and  moon. 
The  famous  Temple  of  the  Seven  Spheres  at  Bor- 
sippa  (Birs-Nimrud),  often  mentioned  already,  and 
rebuilt  by  Nebuchadnezzar  about  600  B.C.  from  a  far 
older  structure,  as  he  explains  in  his  inscription  (see 
p.  72),  was  probably  the  most  gorgeous,  as  it  was  the 
largest  ;  besides,  it  is  the  only  one  of  which  we  have 
detailed  and  reliable  descriptions  and  measurements, 
which  may  best  be  given  in  this  place,  almost  en- 
tirely in  the  words  of  George  Rawlinson  :  * 

II.  The  temple  is  raised  on  a  platform  exception- 
ally low — only  a  few  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
plain  ;  the  entire  height,  including  the  platform,  was 
156  feet  in  a  perpendicular  line.  The  stages — of 
which  the  four  upper  were  lower  than  the  first  three 
— receded  equally  on  three  sides,  but  doubly  as  much 
on  the  fourth,  probably  in  order  to  present  a  more 
imposing  front  from  the  plain,  and  an  easier  ascent. 

*  "  Five  Monarchies,''  Vol.  III.,  pp.  380-387. 


26Fr 


26  rr 


26  rr 


/Sft' 


ISFr 


/53  Ft 


ej 


^  % 


P<    oi 

k 

D  - 

k 

o 

^VJ 

"^ 

01 

X 

H 

fc 

O 

^ 

< 

282  T^^f^  STONY  OF  CHALDEA. 

"  The  ornamentation  of  the  edifice  was  chiefly  by 
means  of  color.  The  seven  Stages  represented  the 
Seven  Spheres,  in  which  moved,  according  to  an- 
cient Chaldean  astronomy,  the  seven  planets.  To 
each  planet  fanc)',  partly  grounding  itself  upon  fact, 
had  from  of  old  assigned  a  peculiar  tint  or  hue. 
The  Sun  (Shamash)  was  golden  ;  the  Moon  (Sin  or 
Nannar),  silver  ;  the  distant  Saturn  (Adar),  almost 
beyond  the  region  of  light,  was  black;  Jupiter 
(Marduk)  was  orange;  the  fiery  Mars  (Nergal)  was 
red;  Venus  (Ishtar)  was  a  pale  yellow;  Mercury 
(Nebo  or  Nabu,  whose  shrine  stood  on  the  top 
stage),  a  deep  blue.  The  seven  stages  of  the  tower 
gave  a  visible  embodiment  to  these  fancies.  The 
basement  stage,  assigned  to  Saturn,  was  blackened 
by  means  of  a  coating  of  bitumen  spread  over  the 
face  of  the  masonry ;  the  second  stage,  assigned  to 
Jupiter,  obtained  the  appropriate  orange  color  by 
means  of  a  facing  of  burnt  bricks  of  that  hue  ;  the 
third  stage,  that  of  Mars,  was  made  blood-red  by 
the  use  of  half-burnt  bricks  formed  of  a  bright-red 
clay  ;  the  fourth  stage,  assigned  to  the  Sun,  appears 
to  have  been  actually  covered  with  thin  plates  of 
gold;  the  fifth,  the  stage  of  Venus,  received  a  pale 
yellow  tint  from  the  employment  of  bricks  of  that 
hue  ;  the  sixth,  the  sphere  of  Mercury,  was  given  an 
azAire  tint  by  vitrifaction,  the  whole  stage  having 
been  subjected  to  an  intense  heat  after  it  was 
erected,  whereby  the  bricks  composing  it  were  con- 
verted into  a  mass  of  blue  slag  ;  the  seventh  stage, 
that  of  the  moon,  was  probably,  like  the  fourth, 
coated  with  actual  plates  of  metal.     Thus  the  build- 


LEGENDS  AND  STORIES. 


283 


ing  rose  up  in  stripes  of  varied  color,  arranged  al- 
most as  nature's  cunning  hand  arranges  hues  in  the 
rainbow,  tones  of  red  coming  first,  succeeded  by  a 
broad  stripe  of  yellow,  the  yellow  being  followed 
by  blue.  Above  this  the  glowing  silvery  summit 
melted  into  the  bright  sheen  of  the  sky.  .  .  .  The 
Tower  is  to  be  regarded  as  fronting  the  north-east, 
the  coolest  side,  and  that  least  exposed  to  the  sun's 
rays  from  the  time  that  they  become  oppressive  in 
Babylonia.  On  this  side  was  the  ascent,  which  con- 
sisted probably  of  a  broad  staircase  extending  along 
the  whole  front  of  the  building.  The  side  platforms, 
at  any  rate  of  the  first  and  second  stages,  probably 
of  all,  were  occupied  by  a  series  of  chambers.  .  .  . 
In  these  were  doubtless  lodged  the  priests  and  other 
attendants  upon  the  temple  service.   ..." 

12.  The  interest  attaching  to  this  temple,  won- 
derful as  it  is  in  itself,  is  greatly  enhanced  by  the 
circumstance  that  its  ruins  have  through  many  cent- 
uries been  considered  as  those  of  the  identical 
Tower  of  Babel  of  the  Bible.  Jewish  literary  men 
who  travelled  over  the  country  in  the  Middle  Ages 
started  this  idea,  which  quickly  spread  to  the  West. 
It  is  conjectured  that  it  was  suggested  by  the  vitri- 
fied fragments  of  the  outer  coating  of  the  sixth  blue 
stage,  (that  of  Mercury  or  Nebo),  the  condition  of 
which  was  attributed  to  lightning  having  struck  the 
building. 

13.  That  the  Ziggurats  of  Chaldea  should  have 
been  used  not  only  as  pedestals  to  uphold  shrines, 
but  as  observatories  by   the  priestly    astronomers 


284 


THE  STORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 


and  astrologers,  was  quite  in  accordance  with  the 
strong  mixture  of  star-worship  grafted  on  the  older 
reh'gion,  and  with  the  power  ascribed  to  the 
heavenly  bodies  over  the  acts  and  destinies  of  men. 
These  constructions,  therefore,  were  fitted  for  astro- 
nomical uses  by  being  very  carefully  placed  with 
their  corners  pointing  exactly  to  the  four  cardinal 
points — North,  South,  East  and  West.  Only  two 
exceptions  have  been  found  to  this  rule,  the  Tower 
of  Borsippa  and  the  Assyrian  Ziggurat  at  Kalah, 
(Nimrud)  explored  by  Layard,  of  which  the  sides, 
not  the  corners,  face  the  cardinal  points.  For  the 
Assyrians,  who  carried  their  entire  culture  and  re- 
ligion northward  from  their  ancient  home,  also 
retained  this  consecrated  form  of  architecture,  with 
the  difference  that  with  them  the  Ziggurats  were 
not  temple  and  observatory  in  one,  but  only  obser- 
vatories attached  to  the  temples,  which  were  built 
on  more  independent  principles  and  a  larger  scale, 
often  covering  as  much  ground  as  a  palace. 

14.  The  singular  orientation  of  the  Chaldean  Zig- 
gurats (subsequently  retained  by  the  Assyrians), — 
i.e.,  the  manner  in  which  they  are  placed,  turned  to 
the  cardinal  points  with  their  angles,  and  not  with 
their  faces,  as  are  the  Egyptian  pyramids,  with 
only  one  exception. — has  long  been  a  puzzle  which 
no  astronomical  considerations  were  sufficient  to 
solve.  But  quite  lately,  in  1883,  Mr.  Pinches,  Geo. 
Smith's  successor  in  the  British  Museum,  found 
a  small  tablet,  giving  lists  of  signs,  eclipses,  etc., 
affecting     the   various    countries,    and     containing 


LEGRA^DS  AXD  STORfF.S. 


285 


the  following  short  geographical  notice,  in  illus- 
tration of  the  position  assigned  to  the  cardinal 
points:  "The  South  is  Elam,  the  North  is  Ac- 
cad,  the  East  is  Suedin  and  Gutium,  the  West  is 
Phoenicia.  On  the  right  is  Accad,  on  the  left  is 
Elam,  in  front  is  Phoenicia,  behind  are  Suedin  and 
Gutium."  In  order  to  appreciate  the  bearing  of 
this  bit  of  topography  on  the  question  in  hand,  we 
must  examine  an  ancient  map,  when  we  shall  at  once 
perceive  that  the  direction  given  by  the  tablet  to 
the  South  (Elam)  answers  to  our  South-East ;  that 
given  to  the  North  (Accad)  answers  to  our  North- 
West ;  while  West  (Phoenicia,  i.e.,  the  coast-land  of 
the  Mediterranean,  down  almost  to  Egypt)  stands 
for  our  SoiitJi-West,  and  East  (Gutium,  the  high- 
lands where  the  Armenian  mountains  join  the  Za- 
gros,  now  Kurdish  Mountains,)  for  our  North-East. 
If  we  turn  the  map  so  that  the  Persian  Gulf  shall 
come  in  a  perpendicular  line  under  Babylon,  we 
shall  produce  the  desired  effect,  and  then  it  will 
strike  us  that  the  Ziggurats  did  face  the  cardinal 
points,  according  to  Chaldean  geography,  with  their 
sides,  and  that  the  discovery  of  the  small  tablet,  as 
was  remarked  on  the  production  of  it,  "settles  the 
difificult  question  of  the  difference  in  orientation  be- 
tween the  Assyrian  and  Egyptian  monuments."  It 
was  further  suggested  that  "  the  two  systems  of  car- 
dinal points  originated  no  doubt  from  two  differ- 
ent races,  and  their  determination  was  due  probably 
to  the  geographical  position  of  the  primitive  Jioiiie  of 
each  race."  Now  the  South-West  is  called  "the 
front,"  "  and  the  migrations  of  the  people  therefore 


286  THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

must  have  been  from  North-East  to  South-West."  * 
This  beautifully  tallies  with  the  hypothesis,  or  con- 
jecture, concerning  the  direction  from  which  the 
Shumiro-Accads  descended  into  the  Lowlands  by 
the  Gulf  (see  pp.  146-8),  and.  moreover,  leads  us  to 
the  question  whether  the  fact  of  the  great  Ziggurat 
of  the  Seven  Spheres  at  Borsippa  facing  the  North- 
East  with  its  front  may  not  have  some  connection 
with  the  holiness  ascribed  to  that  region  as  the  orig- 
inal home  of  the  race  and  the  seat  of  that  sacred 
mountain  so  often  mentioned  as  "  the  Great  I\Ioun- 
tain  of  Countries"  (see  p.  280),  doubly  sacred,  as  the 
meeting-place  of  the  gods  and  the  place  of  entrance 
to  the  "  Arallu  "  or  Lower  World. f 

1.5.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  conception  of  the 
divine  grove  or  garden  with  its  sacred  tree  of  life 
was  sometimes  separated  from  that  of  the  holy 
primeval  mountain  and  transferred  by  tradition  to 
a  more  immediate  and  accessible  neighborhood. 
That  the  city  and  district  of  Babylon  must  have 
been  the  centre  of  such  a  tradition  is  shown  by 
the  most  ancient  Accadian  name  of  the  former — 
TiN-TlR-Kl,  meaning  "  the  place  of  the  tree  of  life," 
while  the  latter  was  called  GaN-Dunvash  or  Kar- 
DUNVASH — "  the    garden    of    the    god     Dunyash," 


*  See  "  Proceedings  of  the  Society  of  Biblical  Archaeology,"  Feb., 
1883,  pp.  74-76,  and  "  Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,"  Vol. 
XVI.,  1S84,  p.  302. 

t  There  is  one  excejition  to  the  above  rule  of  orientation  :  among 
the  Ziggurats  of  Chaldea  there  is  one,  that  of  the  temple  of  Bel.  in 
Babylon,  (K-Sagoila  in  the  old  language,)  which  is  oriented  in  the 
usual  way — its  sides  facing  the  reai  iS'orth,  South,  East  and  West. 


LEGENDS  AND  STORIES.  287 

(probably  one  of  the  names  of  the  god  Ea) — an  ap- 
pellation which  this  district,  although  situated  in 
the  land  of  Accad  or  Upper  Chaldea,  preserved  to 
the  latest  times  as  distinctively  its  own.  Another 
sacred  grove  is  spoken  of  as  situated  in  Eridhu. 
This  city,  altogether  the  most  ancient  we  have  any 
mention  of,  was  situated  at  the  then  mouth  of  the 
Euphrates,  in  the  deepest  and  flattest  of  lowlands, 
a  sort  of  borderland  between  earth  and  sea,  and 
therefore  very  appropriately  consecrated  to  the 
great  spirit  of  both,  the  god  Ea,  the  amphibious 
Cannes.  It  was  so  much  identified  with  him,  that 
in  the  Shumirian  hymns  and  conjurings  his  son 
Meridug  is  often  simply  invoked  as  "  Son  of 
Eridhu."  It  must  have  been  the  oldest  seat  of 
that  spirit-worship  and  sorcerer-priesthood  which 
we  find  crystallized  in  the  earliest  Shumiro-Accadian 
sacred  books.  This  prodigious  antiquity  carries  us 
to  something  like  5000  years  B.C.,  which  explains 
the  fact  that  the  ruins  of  the  place,  near  the  modern 
Arab  village  of  Abu-Shahrein,  are  now  so  far  re- 
moved from  the  sea,  being  a  considerable  distance 
even  from  the  junction  of  the  two  rivers  where 
they  form  the  Shat-el-arab.  The  sacred  grove  of 
Eridhu  is  frequently  referred  to,  and  that  it  was 
connected  with  the  tradition  of  the  tree  of  life  we 
see  from  a  fragment  of  a  most  ancient  hymn,  which 
tells  of  "  a  black  pine,  growing  at  Eridhu,  sprung 
up  in  a  pure  place,  with  roots  of  lustrous  crystal  ex- 
tending downwards,  even  into  the  deep,  marking 
the  centre  of  the  earth,  in  the  dark  forest  into  the 
heart   whereof   man   hath   not   penetrated."     Might 


238  '^'^IP^  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

not  this  be  the  reason  why  the  wood  of  the  pine 
was  so  much  used  in  charms  and  conjuring,  as  the 
surest  safeguard  against  evil  influences,  and  its  very 
shadow  was  held  wholesome  and  sacred  ?  But  we 
return  to  the  legends  of  the  Creation  and  primeval 
world. 

i6.  Mummu-Tiamat,  the  impersonation  of  chaos, 
the  power  of  darkness  and  lawlessness,  does  not 
vanish  from  the  scene  when  Bel  puts  an  end  to 
her  reign,  destroys,  by  the  sheer  force  of  light 
and  order,  her  hideous  progeny  of  monsters  and 
frees  from  her  confusion  the  germs  and  rudimen- 
tal  forms  of  life,  which,  under  the  new  and  di- 
vine dispensation,  arc  to  expand  and  combine  into 
the  beautifully  varied,  yet  harmonious  world  we 
live  in.  Tiamat  becomes  the  sworn  enemy  of  the 
gods  and  their  creation,  the  great  principle  of  op- 
position and  destruction.  When  the  missing  texts 
come  to  light, — if  ever  they  do — it  will  probably  be 
found  that  the  serpent  who  tempts  the  woman  in 
the  famous  cylinder,  is  none  other  than  a  form  of 
the  rebellious  and  vindictive  Tiamat,  who  is  called 
now  a  "  Dragon,"  now  "  the  Great  Serpent."  At 
last  the  hostility  cannot  be  ignored,  and  things  come 
to  a  deadly  issue.  It  is  determined  in  the  council 
of  the  gods  that  one  of  them  must  fight  the  wicked 
dragon ;  a  complete  suit  of  armor  is  made  and  ex- 
hibited by  Anu  himself,  of  which  the  sickle-shaped 
sword  and  the  beautifully  bent  bow  are  the  princi- 
pal features.  It  is  Bel  who  dares  the  venture  and 
goes  forth  on  a  matchless  war  chariot,  armed  with 
the  sword,  and  the  bow,  and  his   great  weapon,  the 


LEGENDS  AND  STORIES. 


289 


thunderbolt,  sending  the  lightning  before  him  and 
scattering  arrows  around.  Tiamat,  the  Dragon  of 
the  Sea,  came  out  to  meet  him,  stretching  her  im- 
mense body  along,  bearing  death  and  destruction, 
and  attended  by  her  followers.     The  god  rushed  on 


71. — BEL   ARMING   TO    FIGHT   THE   DRAGON    (ASSYRIAN    CYLINDER). 


72. — BEL   FIGHTS   THE    DRAGON^TIAMAT    (BABYLONIAN    CYLINDER). 

the  monster  with  such  violence  that  he  threw  her 
down  and"  was  already  fastening  fetters  on  her 
limbs,  when  she  uttered  a  great  shout  and  started 
up  and  attacked  the  righteous  leader  of  the  gods, 
while  banners  were  raised  on  both  sides  as  at  a 
pitched     battle.       Meridug     drew    his    sword     and 


2go  ^'-^^^  STOKY  OF  CHALDEA. 

wounded  her;  at  the  same  time  a  violent  wind 
struck  against  her  face.  She  opened  her  jaws  to 
swallow  up  Meridug,  but  before  she  could  close 
them  he  bade  the  wind  to  enter  into  her  body.  It 
entered  and  filled  her  with  its  violence,  shook  her 
heart  and  tore  her  entrails  and  subdued  her  cour- 
age. Then  the  god  bound  her,  and  put  an  end 
to  her  works,  while  her  followers  stood  amazed, 
then  broke  their  lines  and  fled,  full  of  fear,  seeing 
that  Tiamat,  their  leader,  was  conquered.  There 
she  lay,  her  weapons  broken,  herself  like  a  sword 
thrown  down  on  the  ground,  in  the  dark  and  bound, 
conscious  of  her  bondage  and  in  great  grief,  her 
might  suddenly  broken  by  fear. 

17.  The  battle  of  Bel-Marduk  and  the  Dragon 
was  a  favorite  incident  in  the  cycle  of  Chaldean  tra- 
dition, if  we  judge  from  the  number  of  representa- 
tions we  have  of  it  on  Babylonian  cylinders,  and 
even  on  Assyrian  wall-sculptures.  The  texts  which 
relate  to  it  are,  however,  in  a  frightful  state  of  mu- 
tilation, and  only  the  last  fragment,  describing  the 
final  combat,  can  be  read  and  translated  with  any- 
thing like  completeness.  With  it  ends  the  series 
treating  of  the  Cosmogony  or  Beginnings  of  the 
World.  But  it  may  be  completed  by  a  few  more  le- 
gends of  the  same  primitive  character  and  preserved 
on  detached  tablets,  in  double  text,  as  usual — Acca- 
dian  and  Assyrian.  To  these  belongs  a  poem  nar- 
rating the  rebellion,  already  alluded  to,  (see  p.  182,) 
of  the  seven  evil  spirits,  originally  the  messengers 
and  throne-bearers  of  the  gods,  and  their  war  against 
the  moon,  the  whole  being  evidently  a  fanciful  ren- 


292 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


dcring  of  an  eclipse.  "  Those  wicked  gods,  the 
rebel  spirits,"  of  whom  one  is  likened  to  a  leopard, 
and  one  to  a  serpent,  and  the  rest  to  other  animals 
— suggesting  the  fanciful  shapes  of  storm-clouds — 
while  one  is  said  to  be  the  raging  south  wind,  began 
the  attack  "  with  evil  tempest,  baleful  wind,"  and 
"  from  the  foundations  of  the  heavens  like  the  light- 
ning they  darted,"  The  lower  region  of  the  sky 
was  reduced  to  its  primeval  chaos,  and  the  gods  sat 
in  anxious  council.  The  moon-god  (Sin),  the  sun- 
god  (Shamash),  and  the  goddess  Ishtar  had  been 
appointed  to  sway  in  close  harmony  the  lower  sky 
and  to  command  the  hosts  of  heaven;  but  when  the 
moon- god  was  attacked  by  the  seven  spirits  of  evil, 
his  companions  basely  forsook  him,  the  sun-god  re- 
treating to  his  place  and  Ishtar  taking  refuge  in  the 
highest  heaven  (the  heaven  of  Anu).  Nebo  is  de- 
spatched to  Ea,  who  sends  his  son  Meridug  with  this 
instruction  : — "  Go,  my  son  Meridug  !  The  light  of 
the  sky,  my  son,  even  the  moon-god,  is  grievously 
darkened  in  heaven,  and  in  eclipse  from  heaven  is 
vanishing.  Those  seven  wicked  gods,  the  serpents 
of  death  who  fear  not,  are  waging  unequal  war  with 
the  laboring  moon."  Meridug  obeys  his  father's 
bidding,  and  overthrows  the  seven  powers  of  dark- 
ness.* 

18.  There  is  one  more  detached  legend  known 
from  the  surviving  fragments  of  Berosus,  also  sup- 
posed to  be  derived  from  ancient  Accadian  texts : 
it  is  that   of  the  great  tower  and  the  confusion  of 

*  See  A.  IJ.  Sayce,  "  Babylonian  Literature,"  p.  35. 


LEGENDS  AND  STORIES.  293 

tongues.     One  such  text  has  indeed  been  found  by 
the    indefatigable  George  Smith,  but    there  is  just 
enough  left  of  it  to  be  very  tantalizing  and  very  un- 
satisfactory.    The  narrative  in  Berosus  amounts  to 
this  :  that  men  having  grown  beyond  measure  proud 
and    arrogant,. so  as  to  deem   themselves   superior 
even  to  the  gods,  undertook  to  build  an  immense 
tower,  to  scale  the  sky;  that    the    gods,    offended 
with  this  presumption,  sent  violent  winds  to  over- 
throw the  construction  when  it  had  already  reached 
a  great  height,  and  at  the  same  time  caused  men  to 
speak  different  languages,— probably  to  sow  dissen- 
sion among  them,  and  prevent  their  ever  again  unit- 
ing in  a  common  enterprise  so  daring  and  impious. 
The  site  was  identified  with  that  of  Babylon  itself, 
and  so  strong  was  the  belief  attaching  to  the  legend 
that  the  Jews  later  on  adopted  it  unchanged,  and 
centuries  afterwards,  as  we  saw  above,  fixed  on  the 
ruins  of  the  hugestof  all  Ziggurats,  that  of  Borsippa, 
as  those  of  the  great  Tower  of  the   Confusion  of 
Tongues.     Certain  it  is,  that  the  tradition,  under  all 
its  fanciful  apparel,  contains  a  very  evident  vein  of 
historical  fact,  since  it  was  indeed  from  the  plains  of 
Chaldea  that  many  of  the  principal  nations  of  the 
ancient  East,  various  in  race  and  speech,  dispersed 
to  the  north,  the  west,  and  the  south,  after  having 
dwelt  there   for  centuries  as   in  a  common  cradle, 
side  by  side,  and   indeed  to  a  great  extent  as  one 
people. 


VII. 


MYTHS. — HEROES   AND   THE   MYTHICAL   EPOS. 


I.  The  stories  by  which  a  nation  attempts  to  ac- 
count for  the  mysteries  of  creation,  to  explain  the 
Origin  of  the  World,  are  called,  in  scientific  lan- 
guage, CosMOGONic  Myths.  The  word  Myth  is 
constantly  used  in  conversation,  but  so  loosely  and 
incorrectly,  that  it  is  most  important  once  for  all  to 
define  its  proper  meaning.  It  means  simply  a pJie- 
nomcncii  of  nature  presented  not  as  the  result  of  a  laiu 
but  as  the  aet  of  divine  or  at  least  superJiuuian persons, 
good  or  evil  pozvers — (for  instance,  the  eclipse  of  the 
Moon  described  as  the  war  against  the  gods  of  the 
seven  rebellious  spirits).  Further  reading  and  prac- 
tice will  show  that  there  are  many  kinds  of  myths, 
of  various  origins  ;  but  there  is  none,  which,  if  prop- 
erly taken  to  pieces,  thoroughly  traced  and  cornered, 
will  not  be  covered  by  this  definition.  A  Myth 
has  also  been  defined  as  a  legend  connected  more 
or  less  closely  with  some  religious  belief,  and,  in  its 
main  outlines,  handed  down  from  prehistoric  times. 
There  are  only  two  things  which  can  prevent  the 
contemplation  of  nature  and  speculation  on  its  mys- 
teries from  running  into  mythology :  a  knowledge 

294 


HEROES  AND   THE  MYTHICAL  EPOS.  295 

of  the  physical  laws  of  nature,  as  supplied  by  mod- 
ern experimental  science,  and  a  strict,  unswerving 
belief  in  the  unity  of  God,  absolute  and  undivided, 
as  affirmed  and  defined  by  the  Hebrews  in  so  many 
places  of  their  sacred  books  :  "  The  Lord  he  is  God, 
there  is  none  else  beside  him."  "  The  Lord  he  is 
God,  in  Heaven  above  and  upon  the  earth  beneath 
there  is  none  else."  "  I  am  the  Lord,  and  there  is 
none  else,  there  is  no  God  beside  me."  "  I  am  God 
and  there  is  none  else."  But  experimental  science 
is  a  very  modern  thing  indeed,  scarcely  a  few  hun- 
dred years  old,  and  Monotheism,  until  the  propaga- 
tion of  Christianity,  was  professed  by  only  one  small 
nation,  the  Jews,  though  the  chosen  thinkers  of  other 
nations  have  risen  to  the  same  conception  in  many 
lands  and  many  ages.  The  great  mass  of  mankind 
has  always  believed  in  the  personal  individuality  of 
all  the  forces  of  nature,  i.e.,  in  many  gods  ;  every- 
thing that  went  on  in  the  world  was  to  them  the 
manifestation  of  the  feelings,  the  will,  the  acts  of 
these  gods — hence  the  myths.  The  earlier  the 
times,  the  more  unquestioning  the  belief  and,  as  a 
necessary  consequence,  the  more  exuberant  the 
creation  of  myths. 

2,  But  gods  and  spirits  are  not  the  only  actors  in 
myths.  Side  by  side  with  its  sacred  traditions  on 
the  Origin  of  things,  every  nation  treasures  fond 
but  vague  memories  of  its  own  beginnings — vague, 
both  from  their  remoteness  and  from  their  not  be- 
ing fixed  in  writing,  and  being  therefore  liable  to 
the  alterations  and  enlargements  which  a  story  in- 
variably  undergoes  when  told  many  times  to  and 


?96 


THE  STORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 


by  different  people,  i.e.,  when  it  is  transmitted  from 
generation  to  generation  by  oral  tradition.  These 
memories  generally  centre  around  a  few  great 
names,  the  names  of  the  oldest  national  heroes,  of 
the  first  rulers,  lawgivers  and  conquerors  of  the  na- 
tion, the  men  who  by  their  genius  made  it  a  nation 
out  of  a  loose  collection  of  tribes  or  large  families, 
who  gave  it  social  order  and  useful  arts,  and  safety 
from  its  neighbors,  or,  perhaps,  freed  it  from  foreign 
oppressors.  In  their  grateful  admiration  fqr  these 
heroes,  whose  doings  naturally  became  more  and 
more  marvellous  with  each  generation  that  told  of 
them,  men  could  not  believe  that  they  should  have 
been  mere  imperfect  mortals  like  themselves,  but 
insisted  on  considering-  them  as  directly  inspired  by 
the  deity  in  some  one  of  the  thousand  shapes  they 
invested  it  with,  or  as  half-divine  of  their  own  na- 
ture. The  consciousness  of  the  imperfection  inher- 
ent to  ordinary  humanity,  and  the  limited  powers 
awarded  to  it,  has  always  prompted  this  explana- 
tion of  the  achievements  of  extraordinarily  gifted 
individuals,  in  w^hatever  line  of  action  their  excep- 
tional gifts  displayed  themselves.  Besides,  if  there 
is  something  repugnant  to  human  vanity  in  having 
to  submit  to  the  dictates  of  superior  reason  and  the 
rule  of  superior  power  as  embodied  in  mere  men  of 
flesh  and  blood,  there  is  on  the  contrary  something 
very  flattering  and  soothing  to  that  same  vanity  in 
the  idea  of  having  been  specially  singled  out  as  the 
object  of  the  protection  and  solicitude  of  the  divine 
powers ;  this  idea  at  all  events  takes  the  galling 
stinsf    from    the    constraint    of    obedience.      Hence 


HEROES  AND  THE  MYTHICAL  EPOS. 


297 


every  nation  has  very  jealously  insisted  on  and  de- 
voutly believed  in  the  divine  origin  of  its  rulers 
and  the  divine  institution  of  its  laws  and  customs. 
Once  it  was  implicitly  admitted  that  the  world 
teemed  with  spirits  and  gods,  who,  not  content  with 
attending  to  their  particular  spheres  and  depart- 
ments, came  and  went  at  their  pleasure,  had  walked 
the  earth  and  directly  interfered  with  human  affairs, 
there  was  no  reason  to  disbelieve  any  occurrence, 
however  marvellous — provided  it  had  happened 
very,  very  long  ago.      (See  p.  197.) 

3.  Thus,  in  the  traditions  of  every  ancient  nation, 
there  is  a  vast  and  misty  tract  of  time,  expressed, 
if  at  all,  in  figures  of  appalling  magnitude — hun- 
dreds of  thousands,  nay,  millions  of  years — between 
the  unpierceable  gloom  of  an  eternal  past  and 
the  broad  daylight  of  remembered,  recorded  his- 
tory. There,  all  is  shadowy,  gigantic,  superhuman. 
There,  gods  move,  dim  yet  visible,  shrouded  in 
a  golden  cloud  of  mystery  and  awe ;  there,  by 
their  side,  loom  other  shapes,  as  dim  but  more 
familiar,  human  yet  more  than  human — the  Heroes, 
Fathers  of  races,  founders  of  nations,  the  com- 
panions, the  beloved  of  gods  and  goddesses,  nay, 
their  own  children,  mortal  themselves,  yet  doing 
deeds  of  daring  and  might  such  as  only  the  im- 
mortals could  inspire  and  favor,  the  connecting 
link  between  these  and  ordinary  humanity— as 
that  gloaming,  uncertain,  shifting,  but  not  alto- 
gether unreal  streak  of  time  is  the  border-land 
between  Heaven  and  Earth,  the  very  hot-bed  of 
myth,   fiction  and    romance.     For  of  their  favorite 


^98 


riJE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


heroes,  people  began  to  tell  the  same  stories  as 
of  their  gods,  in  modified  forms,  transferred  to 
their  own  surroundings  and  familiar  scenes.  To 
take  one  of  the  most  common  transformations: 
if  the  Sun-god  waged  war  against  the  demons  of 
darkness  and  destroyed  them  in  heaven  (see  p.  171), 
the  hero  hunted  wild  beasts  and  monsters  on 
earth,  of  course  always  victoriously.  This  one 
theme  could  be  varied  by  the  national  poets  in 
a  thousand  ways  and  woven  into  a  thousand  differ- 
ent stories,  which  come  with  full  right  under 
the  head  of  "myths."  Thus  arose  a  number  of 
so-called  Heroic  Myths,  which,  by  dint  of  being 
repeated,  settled  into  a  certain  defined  tradi- 
tional shape,  like  the  well-known  fairy-tales  of 
our  nurseries,  which  are  the  same  everywhere 
and  told  in  every  country  with  scarcely  any 
changes.  As  soon  as  the  art  of  writing  came 
into  general  use,  these  favorite  and  time-honored 
stories,  which  the  mass  of  the  people  probably 
still  received  as  literal  truth,  were  taken  down, 
and,  as  the  work  naturally  devolved  on  priests  and 
clerks,  i.e.,  men  of  education  and  more  or  less 
literary  skill,  often  themselves  poets,  they  were 
worked  over  in  the  process,  connected,  and  re- 
modelled into  a  continuous  whole.  The  separate 
myths,  or  adventures  of  one  or  more  particular 
heroes,  formerly  recited  severally,  somewhat  after 
the  manner  of  the  old  songs  and  ballads,  frequently 
became  so  many  chapters  or  books  in  a  long,  well- 
ordered  poem,  in  which  they  were  introduced  and 
distributed,  often  with    consummate  art,    and  told 


HEROES  AND   THE  MYTHICAL  EPOS.  OQO 

with  great  poetical  beauty.  Such  poems,  of  which 
several  have  come  down  to  us,  are  called  EPiC 
Poems,  or  simply  Epics.  The  entire  mass  of 
fragmentary  materials  out  of  which  they  are  com- 
posed in  the  course  of  time,  blending  almost  in- 
extricably historical  reality  with  mythical  fiction, 
is  the  National  Epos  of  a  race,  its  greatest 
intellectual  treasure,  from  which  all  its  late  poetry 
and  much  of  its  political  and  religious  feeling 
draws  its  food  ever  after.  A  race  that  has  no 
national  epos  is  one  devoid  of  gi'eat  memories, 
incapable  of  high  culture  and  political  develop- 
ment, and  no  such  has  taken  a  place  among  the 
leading  races  of  the  world.  All  those  that  have 
occupied  such  a  place  at  any  period  of  the  world's 
history,  have  had  their  Mythic  and  Heroic  Ages, 
brimful  of  wonders  and  fanciful  creations. 

4,  From  these  remarks  it  will  be  clear  that  the 
preceding  two  or  three  chapters  have  been  treating 
of  what  may  properly  be  called  the  Religious  and 
Cosmogonic  Myths  of  the  Shumiro-Accads  and  the 
Babylonians.  The  present  chapter  will  be  devoted 
to  their  Heroic  Myths  or  Mythic  Epos,  as  em- 
bodied in  an  Epic  which  has  been  in  great  part 
preserved,  and  which  is  the  oldest  known  in  the 
wo^ld,  dating  certainly  from  2000  years  B.C.,  and 
probably  more. 

5.  Of  this  poem  the  few  fragments  we  have  of 
Berosus  contain  no  indication.  They  only  tell  of 
a  great  deluge  which  took  place  under  the  last  of 
that  fabulous  line  of  ten  kings  which  is  said  to  "have 
begun    259,000   years    after   the    apparition  of  the 


300  '^^^^  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

divine  Man-Fish,  Oanncs,  and  to  have  reigned 
in  the  aggregate  a  period  of  432,000  years.  The 
description  has  always  excited  great  interest  from 
its  extraordinary  resemblance  to  that  given  by  the 
Bible.  Berosus  tells  how  XlSUTHROS,  the  last  of 
the  ten  fabulous  kings,  had  a  dream  in  which  the 
deity  announced  to  him  that  on  a  certain  day  all 
men  should  perish  in  a  deluge  of  waters,  and 
ordered  him  to  take  all  the  sacred  writings  and 
bury  them  at  Sippar,  the  City  of  the  Sun,  then 
to  build  a  ship,  provide  it  with  ample  stores  of 
food  and  drink  and  enter  it  with  his  family  and 
his  dearest  friends,  also  animals,  both  birds  and 
quadrupeds  of  every  kind.  Xisuthros  did  as  he 
had  been  bidden.  When  the  flood  began  to  abate, 
on  the  third  day  after  the  rain  had  ceased  to  fall, 
he  sent  out  some  birds,  to  see  Avhether  they  would 
find  any  land,  but  the  birds,  having  found  neither 
food  nor  place  to  rest  upon,  returned  to  the  ship. 
A  few  days  later,  Xisuthros  once  more  sent  the 
birds  out  ;  but  they  again  came  back  to  him,  this 
time  with  muddy  feet.  On  being  sent  out  a  third 
time,  they  did  not  return  at  all.  Xisuthros  then 
knew  that  the  land  was  uncovered  ;  made  an  open- 
ing in  the  roof  of  the  ship  and  saw  that  it  was 
stranded  on  the  top  of  a  mountain.  He  came 'out 
of  the  ship  with  his  wife,  daughter  and  pilot,  built 
an  altar  and  sacrificed  to  the  gods,  after  which  he 
disappeared  together  with  these.  When  his  com- 
panions came  out  to  seek  him  they  did  not  see 
him,  but  a  voice  from  heaven  informed  them  that 
he    had    been  translated   among    the    gods    to    live 


HEROES  AND   THE  MYTHICAL  EPOS. 


301 


forever,  as  a  reward  for  his  piety  and  righteousness. 
The  voice  went  on  to  command  the  survivors  to 
return  to  Babylonia,  unearth  the  sacred  writings 
and  make  them  known  to  men.  They  obeyed  and, 
moreover,  built  many  cities  and  restored  Babylon. 

6.  However  interesting  this  account,  it  was  re- 
ceived at  second-hand  and  therefore  felt  to  need  con- 
firmation and  ampler  development.  Besides  which, 
as  it  stood,  it  lacked  all  indication  that  could  throw 
light  on  the  important  question  which  of  the  two 
traditions — that  reproduced  by  Berosus  or  the  Bib- 
lical one — was  to  be  considered  as  the  oldest.  Here 
again  it  was  George  Smith  who  had  the  good 
fortune  to  discover  the  original  narrative  (in  1872), 
while  engaged  in  sifting  and  sorting  the  tablet- 
fragments  at  the  British  Museum.  This  is  how  it 
happened  :  * — "  Smith  found  one-half  of  a  whitish- 
yellow  clay  tablet,  which,  to  all  appearance,  had 
been  divided  on  each  face  into  three  columns.  In 
the  third  column  of  the  obverse  or  front  side  he 
read  the  words:  'On  the  mount  Nizir  the  ship' 
stood  still.  Then  I  took  a  dove  and  let  her  fly. 
The  dove  flew  hither  and  thither,  but  finding  no 
resting-place,  returned  to  the  ship.'  Smith  at  once 
knew  that  he  had  discovered  a  fragment  of  the 
cuneiform  narrative  of  the  Deluge.  With  inde- 
fatigable perseverance  he  set  to  work  to  search  the 
thousands  of  xA.ssyrian  tablet-fragments  heaped  up 
in  the  British  Museum,  for  more  pieces.  His 
efforts  were    crowned    with    success.     He    did    not 

*  Taul  Haupt,  "  Der  Keiliuschriftliche  Sundflutbericht,"  iSSi. 


302 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


indeed  find  a  piece  completing  the  half  of  the 
tablet  first  discovered,  but  he  found  instead  frag- 
ments of  two  more  copies  of  the  narrative,  which 
completed  the  text  in  the  most  felicitous  manner 
and  supplied  several  very  important  variations  of  it. 
One  of  these  duplicates,  which  has  been  pieced  out 
of  sixteen  little  bits  (see  illustration  on  p.  262),  bore 
the  usual  inscription  at  the  bottom  :  *  The  prop- 
erty of  Asshurbanipal,  King  of  hosts.  King  of 
the  land  of  Asshur,'  and  contained  the  information 
that  the  Deluge-narrative  was  the  eleventh  tablet 
of  a  series,  several  fragments  of  which.  Smith  had 
already  come  across.  With  infinite  pains  he  put 
all  these  fragments  together  and  found  that  the 
story  of  the  Deluge  was  only  an  incident  in  a 
great  Heroic  Epic,  a  poem  written  in  twelve 
books,  making  in  all  about  three  thousand  lines, 
which  celebrated  the  deeds  of  an  ancient  king  of 
Erech. 

7.  Each  book  or  chapter  naturally  occupied  a 
separate  tablet.  All  are  by  no  means  equally  well 
preserved.  Some  parts,  indeed,  arc  missing,  while 
several  are  so  mutilated  as  to  cause  serious  gaps 
and  breaks  in  the  narrative,  and  the  first  tablet  has 
not  yet  been  found  at  all.  Yet,  with  all  these 
drawbacks  it  is  quite  possible  to  build  up  a  very 
intelligible  outline  of  the  whole  story,  while  the 
eleventh  tablet,  owing  to  various  fortunate  addi- 
tions that  came  to  light  from  time  to  time,  has 
been  restored  almost  completely. 

8.  The  epic  carries  us  back  to  the  time  when 
Erech  was   the    capital    of    Shumir,  and  when   the 


HEROES  AND   THE  MYTHICAL  EPOS. 


303 


land  was  under  the  dominion  of  the  Elamite  con- 
querors, not  passive  or  content,  but  striving  man- 
fully for  deliverance.  We  may  imagine  the  struggle 
to  have  been  shared  and  headed  by  the  native 
kings,  whose  memory  would  be  gratefully  treasured 
by  later  generations,  and  whose  exploits  would 
naturally  become  the  theme  of  household  tradition 
and  poets'  recitations.  So  much  for  the  bare  his- 
torical groundwork  of  the  poem.  It  is  easily  to 
be  distinguished  from  the  rich  by-play  of  fiction 
and  wonderful  adventure  gradually  woven  into  it 
from  the  ample  fund  of  national  myths  and  legends, 
which  have  gathered  around  the  name  of  one  hero- 
king,  GiSDHUBAR  or  IZDUBAR,"  said  to  be  a  native 
of  the  ancient  city  of  Marad  and  a  direct  descend- 
ant of  the  last  antediluvian  king  HAsiSADRA,  the 
same  whom  Berosus  calls  Xisuthros. 

9.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the  first  tablet  and  the 
top  part  of  the  second  are  missing,  for  thus  we 
lose  the  opening  of  the  poem,  which  would  prob- 
ably give  us  valuable  historical  indications.  What 
there  is  of  the  second  tablet  shows  the  city  of 
Erech  groaning  under  the  tyranny  of  the  Elamite 
conquerors.  Erech  had  been  governed  by  the 
divine  Dumuzi,  the  husband  of  the  goddess  Ishtar. 
He  had  met  an  untimely  and  tragic  death,  and 
been  succeeded  by  Ishtar,  who  had  not  been  able, 
however,  to  make  a  stand  against  the  foreign  in- 
vaders,  or,   as   the  text  picturesquely  expresses  it, 

*  There  are  difficulties  in  the  way  of  reading  this  name,  and 
scholars  are  not  sure  that  this  is  the  right  pronunciation  of  it ;  but 
they  retain  it,  until  some  new  discovery  helps  to  settle  the  question. 


,Q^  THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

"  to  hold  up  her  head  against  the  foe."  Izdubar, 
as  yet  known  to  fame  only  as  a  powerful  and  in- 
defatigable huntsman,  then  dwelt  at  Erech,  where 
he  had  a  singular  dream.  It  seemed  to  him  that 
the  stars  of  heaven  fell  down  and  struck  him  on 
the  back  in  their  fall,  while  over  him  stood  a 
terrible  being,  with  fierce,  threatening  countenance 
and  claws  like  a  lion's,  the  sight  of  whom  paralyzed 
him  with  fear. 

lo.  Deeply  impressed  with  this  dream,  which  ap- 
peared to  him  to  portend  strange  things,  Izdubar 
sent  forth  to  all  the  most  famous  seers  and  wise 
men,  promising  the  most  princely  rewards  to  who- 
ever would  interpret  it  for  him  :  he  should  be  en- 
nobled with  his  family;  he  should  take  the  high 
seat  of  honor  at  the  royal  feasts ;  he  should  be 
clothed  in  jewels  and  gold ;  he  should  have  seven 
beautiful  wives  and  enjoy  every  kind  of  distinction. 
But  there  was  none  found  of  wisdom  equal  to  the 
task  of  reading  the  vision.  At  length  he  heard 
of  a  wonderful  sage,  named  Eabani,  far-famed  for 
"  his  wisdom  in  all  things  and  his  knowledge  of 
all  that  is  either  visible  or  concealed,"  but  who 
dwelt  apart  from  mankind,  in  a  distant  wilderness, 
in  a  cave,  amidst  the  beasts  of  the  forest. 

"  With  the  gazelles  he  ate  his  food  at  night,  with  the  beasts  of  the 
field  he  associated  in  the  daytime,  with  the  living  things  of  the  waters 
his  heart  rejoiced." 

This  strange  being  is  always  represented  on  the 
Babylonian  cylinders  as  a  Man-Bull,  with  horns  on 
his  head  and  a  bull's   feet  and  tail.     He  was   not 


HEROES  AND   THE  MYTHICAL  ETOS. 


305 


easily  accessible,  nor  to  be  persuaded  to  come  to 
Erech,  even  though  the  Sun-god,  Shamash,  him- 
self "  opened  his  lips  and  spoke  to  him  from  heaven," 
making  great  promises  on  Izdubar's  behalf  : — 

"They  shall  clothe  thee  in  royal  robes,  they  shall  make  thee  great; 
and  Izdubar  shall  become  thy  friend,  and  he  shall  place  thee  in  a 
luxurious  seat  at  his  left  hand;  the  kings  of  the  earth  shall  kiss  thy 
feet;  he  shall  enrich  thee  and  make  the  men  of  Erech  keep  silence 
before  thee." 

The  hermit  was  proof  against  ambition  and  re- 
fused to  leave  his  wilderness.  Then  a  follower  of 
Izdubar,  Zaidu,  the  huntsman,  was  sent  to  bring 
him ;  but  he  returned  alone  and  reported  that, 
when  he  had  approached  the  seer's  cave,  he  had 
been  seized  with  fear  and  had  not  entered  it,  but 
had  crawled  back,  climbing  the  steep  bank  on  his 
hands  and  feet. 

II.  At  last  Izdubar  bethought  him  to  send  out 
Ishtar's  handmaidens,  Shamhatu  ("  Grace  ")  and 
Harimtu  ('*  Persuasion  "),  and  they  started  for 
the  wilderness  under  the  escort  of  Zaidu.  Sham- 
hatu was  the  first  to  approach  the  hermit,  but 
he  heeded  her  little  ;  he  turned  to  her  companion, 
and  sat  down  at  her  feet  ;  and  when  Harimtu 
("  Persuasion  ")  spoke,  bending  her  face  towards 
him,  he  listened  and  was  attentive.  And  she  said 
to  him  : 

"Famous  att  thou,  Eabani,  even  like  a  god;  why  then  associate 
with  the  wild  things  of  the  desert?  Thy  place  is  in  the  midst  of 
Flrech,  the  great  city,  in  the  temple,  the  seat  of  Anu  and  Ishtar,  in 
the  palace  of  Izdubar,  the  man  of  might,  who  towers  amidst  the  lead- 
ers as  a  bull."  "She  spoke  to  him,  and  before  her  words  the  wis- 
dom of  his  heart  fled  and  vanished." 


74- — IZDUBAR   AND    THE    LION    (HAS-RELIEF    1  ROM    KHORSABAD). 
(Smith's  ■'  Chaldea.") 


HEROES  AND  THE  MYTHICAL  EPOS.  30; 

He  answered: 

"  I  will  go  to  Erech,  to  the  temple,  the  seat  of  Anu  and  Ishtar,  to 
the  palace  of  Izdubar,  the  man  of  might,  who  towers  amidst  the 
leaders  as  a  bull.  I  will  meet  him  and  see  his  might.  But  I  shall 
bring  to  Erech  a  lion-let  Izdubar  destroy  him  if  he  can.  He  is 
bred  in  the  wilderness  and  of  great  strength." 


75.— IZDUBAR   AND   THE   LION. 
(British  Museum.) 

So  Zaidu  and  the  two  women  went  back  to 
Erech,  and  Eabani  went  with  them,  leading  his 
lion.  'The  chiefs  of  the  city  received  him  with 
great  honors  and  gave  a  splendid  entertainment  in 
sign  of  rejoicing. 

12.  It    is    evidently  on  this    occasion  that    Izdu- 
bar conquers  the  .seer's  esteem  by  fighting  and  kill- 


3o8  THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

ing  the  lion,  after  which  the  hero  and  the  sage  en- 
ter into  a  solemn  covenant  of  friendship.  But  the 
third  tablet,  which  contains  this  part  of  the  story, 
is  so  much  mutilated  as  to  leave  much  of  the  sub- 
stance to  conjecture,  while  all  the  details,  and  the 
interpretation  of  the  dream  which  is  probably 
given,  are  lost.  The  same  is  unfortunately  the 
case  with  the  fourth  and  fifth  tablets,  from  which 
we  can  only  gather  that  Izdubar  and  Eabani,  who 
have  become  inseparable,  start  on  an  expedition 
against  the  Elamite  tyrant,  KllUMBABA.  who  holds 
his  court  in  a  gloomy  forest  of  cedars  and  cypresses, 
enter  his  palace,  fall  upon  him  unawares  and  kill 
him.  leaving  his  body  to  be  torn  and  devoured  by 
the  birds  of  prey,  after  which  exploit  Izdubar,  as 
his  friend  had  predicted  to  him,  is  proclaimed  king 
in  Erech.  The  sixth  tablet  is  far  better  preserved, 
and  gives  us  one  of  the  most  interesting  incidents 
almost  complete. 

13.  After  Izdubar's  victory,  his  glory  and  power 
were  great,  and  the  goddess  Ishtar  looked  on  him 
with  favor  and  wished  for  his  love. 

"Izdubar,"  she  said,  "be  my  husband  and  I  will  be  thy  wife: 
pledge  thy  troth  to  me.  Thou  shalt  drive  a  chariot  of  gold  and 
precious  stones,  thy  days  shall  be  marked  with  conquests ;  kings, 
princes  and  lords  shall  be  subject  to  thee  and  kiss  thy  feet;  they 
shall  bring  thee  tribute  from  mountain  and  valley,  thy  herds  and 
flocks  shall  multiply  doubly,  thy  mules  shall  be  fleet,  and  thy  oxen 
strong  under  the  yoke.     Thou  shalt  have  no  rival." 

But  Izdubar,  in  his  pride,  rejected  the  love  of  the 
goddess  ;  he  insulted  her  and  taunted  her  with  hav- 
ing loved   Dumuzi  and    others  before  him.     Great 


HEROES  AND  THE  MYTHICAL  EPOS. 


309 


was  the  wrath  of  Ishtar ;  she  ascended  to  heaven 
and  stood  before  her  father  Anu : 

"  My  father,  Izdubar  has  insulted  me.     Izdubar  scorns  my  beauty 
and  spurns  my  love." 

She  demanded  satisfaction,  and  Anu,  at  her  re- 
quest, created  a  monstrous  bull,  which  he  sent 
against  the  city  of  Erech.  But  Izdubar  and  his 
friend  went  out  to   fight   the  bull,  and  killed  him. 


76.— IZDUBAR    AND    EABANI  FIGHT   THE    BULL   OF    ISHTAR.— IZDUBAR 
FIGHTS    EABANI'S    LION    (BABYLONIAN    CYLINDER). 
(Smith's  "Chaldea.") 

Eabani  took  hold  of  his  tail  and  horns,  and  Izdu- 
bar gave  him  his  deathblow.  They  drew  the  heart 
out  of  his  body  and  offered  it  to  Shamash.  Then 
Ishtar  ascended  the  wall  of  the  city,  and  standing 
there  cursed  Izdubar.  She  gathered  her  handmaid- 
ens around  her  and  they  raised  loud  lamentations 
over  the  death  of  the  divine  bull.  But  Izdubar 
called  together  his  people  and  bade  them  lift  up 
the  body  and  carry  it  to  the  altar  of  Shamash  and 
lay  it  before  the  god.  Then  they  washed  their 
hands  in   the  Euphrates  and   returned   to   the   city, 


3IO 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


where  they  made  a  feast  of  rejoicing  and  revelled 
deep  into  the  night,  while  in  the  streets  a  procla- 
mation to  the  people  of  Erech  was  called  out,  which 
began  with  the  triumphant  words: 

"  Who  is  skilled  among  leaders  ?     Who  is  great  among  men?     Iz- 
dubar  is  skilled  among  leaders ;  Izdubar  is  great  among  men." 

14.  Ikit  the  vengeance  of  the  offended  goddess 
was  not  to  be  so  easily  defeated.  It  now  fell  on  the 
hero  in  a  more  direct  and  personal  way.     Ishtar's 


77. — IZDUBAR   AND   SaRANI    (BABYLONIAN    CYLINDP:r). 
(Perrot  and  Chippiez.) 

mother,  the  goddess  Anatu,  smote  Eabani  with 
sudden  death  and  Izdubar  with  a  dire  disease,  a 
sort  of  leprosy,  it  would  appear.  Mourning  for  his 
friend,  deprived  of  strength  and  tortured  with  in- 
tolerable pains,  he  saw  visions  and  dreams  which 
oppressed  and  terrified  him,  and  there  was  now  no 
wise,  familiar  voice  to  soothe  and  counsel  him.  At 
length  he  decided  to  consult  his  ancestor,  Hasisa- 
dra,  who  dwelt  far  away,  "at  the  mouth  of  the 
rivers,"  and  was  immortal,  and  to  ask  of  him  how 
he  mieht  find  healincr  and  strength.      He  started  on 


HEROES  AND   THE  MYTHICAL  EPOS. 


311 


his  way  alone  and  came  to  a  strange  country,  where 
he  met  gigantic,  monstrous  beings,  half  men,  half 
scorpions :  their  feet  were  below  the  earth,  while 
their  heads  touched  the  gates  of  heaven  ;  they  were 
the  warders  of  the  sun  and  kept  their  watch  over 
its  rising  and  setting.  They  said  one  to  another: 
"  Who  is  this  that  comes  to  us  with  the  mark  of  the 
divine  wrath  on  his  body  ?  "  Izdubar  made  his  per- 
son and  errand  known  to  them ;  then  they  gave 
him  directions  how  to  reach  the  land  of  the  blessed 
at  the  mouth  of  the  rivers, 
but  warned  him  that  the  way 
was  long  and  full  of  hard- 
ships. He  set  out  again 
and  crossed  a  vast  tract  of 
country,  where  there  was 
nothing  but  sand,  not  one 
cultivated  field ;  and  he 
walked  on  and  on,  never 
looking  behind  him,  until  he  came  to  a  beautiful 
grove  by  the  seaside,  where  the  trees  bore  fruits 
of  emerald  and  other  precious  stones;  this  grove 
was  guarded  by  two  beautiful  maidens,  SiDURl 
and  Sabitu,  but  they  looked  with  mistrust  on  the 
stranger  with  the  mark  of  the  gods  on  his  body, 
and  closed  their  dwelling  against  him. 

15.  And  now  Izdubar  stood  by  the  shore  of  the 
Waters  of  Death,  which  are  wide  and  deep,  and 
separate  the  land  of  the  living  from  that  of  the 
blessed  and  immortal  dead.  Here  he  encountered 
the  ferryman  UrubeL;  to  him  he  opened  his  heart 
and  spoke   of  the   friend  whom   he  had  loved  and 


78. — SCORPION-MEN. 

(Smith's  "  Chaldea.") 


HEROES  AND   THE  MYTHICAL  EPOS.  313 

lost,  and  Urubel  took  him  into  his  ship.  For  one 
month  and  fifteen  days  they  sailed  on  the  Waters 
of  Death,  until  they  reached  that  distant  land  by 
the  mouth  of  the  rivers,  where  Izdubar  at  length 
met  his  renowned  ancestor  face  to  face,  and,  even 
while  he  prayed  for  his  advice  and  assistance,  a 
very  natural  feeling  of  curiosity  prompted  him  to 
ask  "  how  he  came  to  be  translated  alive  into  the 
assembly  of  the  gods."  Hasisadra,  with  great  com- 
plaisance, answered  his  descendant's  question  and 
gave  him  a  full  account  of  the  Deluge  and  his  own 
share  in  that  event,  after  which  he  informed  him  in 
what  way  he  could  be  freed  from  the  curse  laid  on 
him  by  the  gods.     Then  turning  to  the  ferryman  : 

"  Urubel,  the  man  whom  thou  hast  brought  hither,  behold,  disease 
has  covered  his  body,  sickness  has  destroyed  the  strength  of  his 
limbs.  Take  him  with  thee,  Urubel,  and  purify  him  in  the  waters, 
that  his  disease  may  be  changed  into  beauty,  that  he  may  throw  off 
his  sickness  and  the  waters  carry  it  away,  that  health  may  cover  his 
skin,  and  the  hair  of  his  head  be  restored  and  descend  in  flowing 
locks  down  to  his  garment,  that  he  may  go  his  way  and  return  to  his 
own  country." 

16.  When  all  had  been  done  according  to  Hasis- 
adra's  instruction,  Izdubar,  restored  to  health  and 
vigor,  took  leave  of  his  ancestor,  and  entering  the 
ship  once  more  was  carried  back  to  the  shore  of  the 
living  by  the  friendly  Urubel,  who  accompanied  him 
all  the  way  to  Erech.  But  as  they  approached  the 
city  tears  flowed  down  the  hero's  face  and  his  heart 
was  heavy  within  him  for  his  lost  friend,  and  he 
once  more  raised  his  voice  in  lamentation  for  him  : 

"  Thou  takest  no  part  in  the  noble  feast ;  to  the  assembly  thev  call 
thee  not;  thou  liftest  not  the  bow  from  the  ground;  what  is  hit  by 


3»4 


THE  STORY  OF  ClIALDEA. 


the  bow  is  not  for  thee ;  thy  hand  grasps  not  the  club  and  strikes  not 
the  prey,  nor  stretches  thy  foeman  dead  on  the  earth.  The  wife  thou 
lovest  thou  kissest  not ;  the  wife  thou  hatest  thou  strikes!  not.  The 
child  thou  lovest  thou  kissest  not;  the  child  thou  hatest  thou  strik- 
est  not.  The  might  of  the  earth  has  swallowed  thee.  O  Darkness, 
Darkness,  Mother  Darkness!  thou  enfoldest  him  like  a  mantle;  like 
a  deep  well  thou  enclosest  him  !  " 

Thus  Izdubar  mourned  for  his  friend,  and  went  in- 
to the  temple  of  Bel,  and  ceased  not  from  lamentinc^ 
and  crying  to  the  gods,  till  Ea  mercifully  inclined 
to  his  prayer  and  sent  his  son  Meridug  to  bring 
Eabani's  spirit  out  of  the  dark  world  of  shades  into 
the  land  of  the  blessed,  there  to  live  forever  among 
the  heroes  of  old,  reclining  on  luxurious  couches 
and  drinking  the  pure  water  of  eternal  springs. 
The  poem  ends  with  a  vivid  description  of  a  war- 
rior's funeral : 

"  I  see  him  who  has  been  slain  in  battle.  His  father  and  mother 
hold  his  head;  his  wife  weeps  over  him;  his  friends  stand  around; 
his  prey  lies  on  the  ground  uncovered  and  unheeded.  The  van- 
quished captives  follow ;  the  food  provided  in  the  tents  is  con- 
sumed." 

17.  The  incident  of  the  Deluge,  which  has  been 
merely  mentioned  above,  not  to  interrupt  the  nar- 
rative by  its  disproportionate  length,  (the  eleventh 
tablet  being  the  best  preserved  of  all),  is  too  impor- 
tant not  to  be  given  at  full  length,* 

"  I  will  tell  thee,  Izdubar,  how  I  was  saved  from  the  flood,"  begins 
Hasisadra,  in  answer  to  his  descendant's  question,  "also  will  I  im- 
part to  thee  the  decree  of  the  great  gods.  Thou  knowest  .Surippak, 
the  city  that  is  by  the  Euphrates.  This  city  was  already  very  ancient 
when  the  gods  were  moved  in  their  hearts  to  ordain  a  great  deluge, 

*  Translated  from  the  German  version  of  Paul  Haupt,  "  Der  Keil- 
inschriftliche  Siindfluthbericht." 


HEROES  AND  THE  MYTHICAL  EPOS.  3  1  5 

all  of  them,  their  father  Anu,  their  councillor  the  warlike  Bel,  their 
throne-bearer  Ninib,  their  leader  Ennugi.  The  lord  of  inscrutable 
wisdom,  the  god  Ea,  was  with  them  and  imparted  to  me  their  decision. 
'  Listen,'  he  said,  'and  attend!  Man  of  Surippak,  son  of  Ubaratutu,* 
go  out  of  thy  house  and  build  thee  a  ship.  They  are  willed  to  destroy 
the  seed  of  life ;  but  thou  preserve  it  and  bring  into  the  ship  seed  of 
every  kind  of  life.  The  ship  which  thou  shalt  build  let  it  be  ...  . 
in  length,  and  ....  in  width  and  height,!  and  cover  it  also  with  a 
deck.'  When  I  heard  this  I  spoke  to  Ea,  my  lord:  'If  I  construct 
the  ship  as  thou  biddest  me,  O  lord,  the  people  and  their  elders  will 
laugh  at  me.'  But  Ea  opened  his  lips  once  more  and  spoke  to  me 
his  servant:  'Men  have  rebelled  against  me,  and  I  will  do  judgment 
on  them,  high  and  low.  Rut  do  thou  close  the  door  of  the  ship  when 
the  time  comes  and  I  tell  thee  of  it.  Then  enter  the  ship  and  bring 
into  it  thy  store  of  grain,  all  thy  property,  thy  family,  thy  men-ser- 
vants and  thy  women-servants,  and  also  thy  next  of  kin.  The  cattle 
of  the  fields,  the  wild  beasts  of  the  fields,  I  shall  send  to  thee  myself, 
that  they  may  be  safe  behind  thy  door.'— Then  I  built  the  ship  and 
provided  it  with  stores  of  food  and  drink;  I  divided  the  interior  into 
....  compartments. t  I  saw  to  the  chinks  and  filled  them ;  I 
poured  bitumen  over  its  outer  side  and  over  its  inner  side.  All  that 
I  possessed  I  brought  together  and  stowed  it  in  the  ship ;  all  that 
I  had  of  gold,  of  silver,  of  the  seed  of  life  of  every  kind ;  all  my  men- 
servants  and  my  women-servants,  the  cattle  of  the  field,  the  wild 
beasts  of  the  field,  and  also  my  nearest  friends.  Then,  when  Sha- 
mash  brought  round  the  appointed  time,  a  voice  spoke  to  me : — 
'  This  evening  the  heavens  will  rain  destruction,  wherefore  go  thou 
into  the  ship  and  close  thy  door.  The  appointed  time  has  come,' 
spoke  the  voice,  '  this  evening  the  heavens  will  rain  destruction.' 
And  greatly  I  feared  the  sunset  of  that  day,  the  day  on  which  I  was 
to  begin  my  voyage.  I  was  sore  afraid.  Yet  I  entered  into  the  ship 
and  closed  the  door  behind  me,  to  shut  off  the  ship.  And  I  confided 
the  great  ship  to  the  pilot,  with  all  its  freight. — Then  a  great  black 
cloud  rises  from  the  depths  of  the  heavens,  and  Raman  thunders 
in  the  midst  of  it,  while  Nebo  and  Nergal  encounter  each  other,  and 
the  Throne-bearers  walk  over  mountains  and  vales.  The  mighty  god 
of  Pestilence  lets  loose  the  whirlwinds ;  Ninib  unceasingly  makes  the 


*  The  ninth  king  in  the  fabulous  list  of  ten. 
t  The  figures  unfortunately  obliterated- 


2  1 6  THE  S  TOR  Y  OF  CI/ A  L  DEA . 

canals  to  overflow ;  the  Anunnaki  bring  up  floods  from  the  depths 
of  the  earth,  which  qualies  at  their  violence.  Raman's  mass  of  wa- 
ters rises  even  to  heaven ;  light  is  changed  into  darkness.  Confu- 
sion and  devastation  fills  the  earth.  Brother  looks  not  after  brother, 
men  have  no  thought  for  one  another.  In  the  heavens  the  very  gods 
are  afraid;  they  seek  a  refuge  in  the  highest  heaven  of  Anu;  as  a 
dog  in  its  lair,  the  gods  crouch  by  the  railing  of  heaven.  Ishtar 
cries  aloud  with  sorrow :  '  Behold,  all  is  turned  into  mud,  as  I  fore- 
told to  the  gods!  I  prophesied  this  disaster  and  the  extermination 
of  my  creatures — men.  But  I  do  not  give  them  birth  that  they  may 
fill  the  sea  like  the  brood  of  fishes.'  Then  the  gods  wept  with  her 
and  sat  lamenting  on  one  spot.  For  six  days  and  seven  nights  wind, 
flood  and  storm  reigned  supreme;  but  at  dawn  of  the  seventh  day 
the  tempest  decreased,  the  waters,  which  had  battled  like  a  mighty 
host,  abated  their  violence;  the  sea  retired,  and  storm  and  flood 
both  ceased.  I  steered  about  the  sea,  lamenting  that  the  homesteads 
of  men  were  changed  into  mud.  The  corpses  drifted  about  like 
logs.  I  opened  a  port-hole,  and  when  the  light  of  day  fell  on  my 
face  I  shivered  and  sat  down  and  wept.  I  steered  over  the  countries 
which  now  were  a  terrible  sea.  Then  a  piece  of  land  rose  out  of  the 
waters.  The  ship  steered  towards  the  land  Nizir.  The  mountain 
of  the  land  Nizir  held  fast  the  ship  and  did  not  let  it  go.  Thus  it 
was  on  the  first  and  on  the  second  day,  on  the  third  and  the  fourth, 
also  on  the  fifth  and  sixth  days.  At  dawn  of  the  seventh  day  I  took 
out  a  dove  and  sent  it  forth.  The  dove  went  forth  to  and  fro,  but 
found  no  resting-place  and  returned.  Then  I  took  out  a  swallow 
and  sent  it  forth.  The  swallow  went  forth,  to  and  fro,  but  found  no 
resting-place  and  returned.  Then  I  took  out  a  raven  and  sent  it 
forth.  The  raven  went  forth,  and  when  it  saw  that  the  waters  had 
abated,  it  came  near  again,  cautiously  wading  through  the  water,  but 
did  not  return.  Then  I  let  out  all  the  animals,  to  the  four  winds  of 
heaven,  and  offered  a  sacrifice.  I  raised  an  altar  on  the  highest 
summit  of  the  mountain,  placed  the  sacred  vessels  on  it  seven  by 
seven,  and  spread  reeds,  cedar-wood  and  sweet  herbs  under  them. 
The  gods  smelled  a  savor ;  the  gods  smelled  a  sweet  savor  ;  like  flies 
they  swarmed  around  the  sacrifice.  And  when  the  goddess  Ishtar 
came,  she  spread  out  on  high  the  great  bows  of  her  father  Anu  : — '  By 
the  necklace  of  my  neck,'  she  said,  '  I  shall  be  mindful  of  these  days, 
never  shall  I  lose  the  memory  of  them  !  May  all  the  gods  come  to 
the  altar;  Bel  alone  shall  not  come,  for  that  he  controlled  not  his 
wrath,  and  brought  on  the  deluge,  and  gave  up  my  men  to  destruc- 


HEROES  AND  THE  MYTHICAL  EPOS. 


1^^7 


tion.'  When  after  that  Bel  came  nigh  and  saw  the  ship,  he  was  per- 
plexed, and  his  heart  was  filled  with  anger  against  the  gods  and 
against  the  spirits  of  Heaven  : — '  Not  a  soul  shall  escape,'  he  cried  ; 
'not  one  man  shall  come  alive  out  of  destruction!'  Then  the  god 
Ninib  opened  his  lips  and  spoke,  addressing  the  warlike  Bel : — 
'  Who  but  Ea  can  have  done  this?  Ea  knew,  and  informed  him  of 
everything.'  Then  Ea  opened  his  lips  and  spoke,  addressing  the 
warlike  Bel : — '  Thou  art  the  mighty  leader  of  the  gods  :  but  why 
hast  thou  acted  thus  recklessly  and  brought  on  this  deluge?  Let  the 
sinner  suffer  for  his  sin  and  the  evil-doer  for  his  misdeeds ;  but  to 
this  man  be  gracious  that  he  may  not  be  destroyed,  and  incline  tow- 
ards him  favorably,  that  he  may  be  preserved.  And  instead  of 
bringing  on  another  deluge,  let  lions  and  hyenas  come  and  take  from 
the  numlDer  of  men ;  send  a  famine  to  unpeople  the  earth ;  let  the 
god  of  Pestilence  lay  men  low.  I  have  not  imparted  to  Hasisadra 
the  decision  of  the  great  gods :  I  only  sent  him  a  dream,  and  he  un- 
derstood the  warning.' — Then  Bel  came  to  his  senses.  He  entered 
the  ship,  took  hold  of  my  hand  and  lifted  me  up ;  he  also  lifted  up 
my  wife  and  laid  her  hand  in  mine.  Then  he  turned  towards  us, 
stood  between  us  and  spoke  this  blessing  on  us : — '  Until  now  Hasis- 
adra was  only  human :  but  now  he  shall  be  raised  to  be  equal  with 
the  gods,  together  with  his  wife.  He  shall  dwell  in  the  distant  land, 
by  the  mouth  of  the  rivers.'  Then  they  took  me  and  translated  me 
to  the  distant  land  by  the  mouth  of  the  rivers." 

1 8.  Such  is  the  great  Chaldean  Epic,  the  discovery 
of  which  produced  so  profound  a  sensation,  not  to 
say  excitement,  not  only  among  special  scholars, 
but  in  the  reading  world  generally,  while  the  full 
importance  of  it  in  the  history  of  human  culture 
cannot  yet  be  realized  at  this  early  stage  of  our  his- 
torical studies,  but  will  appear  more  and  more 
clearly  as  their  course  takes  us  to  later  nations  and 
other  lands.  We  will  here  linger  over  the  poem 
only  long  enough  to  justify  and  explain  the  name 
given  to  it  in  the  title  of  this  chapter,  of  "  Mythi- 
cal Epos." 


2  1 8  THE  STOR  Y  OF  CHA  f.DEA. 

19.  Were  the  hero  Izdubar  a  purely  human  per- 
son, it  would  be  a  matter  of  much  wonder  how  the 
small  nucleus  of  historical  fact  which  the  story  of 
his  adventures  contains  should  have  become  en- 
twined and  overgrown  with  such  a  disproportionate 
quantity  of  the  most  extravagant  fiction,  oftentimes 
downright  monstrous  in  its  fancifulncss.  But  the 
story  is  one  far  older  than  that  of  any  mere  human 
hero  and  relates  to  one  far  mightier :  it  is  the  story 
of  the  Sun  in  his  progress  through  the  year,  retrac- 
ing his  career  of  increasing  splendor  as  the  spring 
advances  to  midsummer,  the  height  of  his  power 
when  he  reaches  the  month  represented  in  the  Zo- 
diac by  the  sign  of  the  Lion,  then  the  decay  of  his 
strength  as  he  pales  and  sickens  in  the  autumn,  and 
at  last  his  restoration  to  youth  and  vigor  after  he 
has  passed  the  Waters  of  Death — Winter,  the  death 
of  the  year,  the  season  of  nature's  deathlike  torpor, 
out  of  which  the  sun  has  not  strength  sufflcient  to 
rouse  her,  until  spring  comes  back  and  the  circle 
begins  again.  An  examination  of  the  Accadian  cal- 
endar, adopted  by  the  more  scientifically  inclined 
Semites,  shows  that  the  names  of  most  of  the 
months  and  the  signs  by  which  they  were  repre- 
sented on  the  maps  of  the  corresponding  constella- 
tions of  the  Zodiac,  directly  answer  to  various  inci- 
dents of  the  poem,  following,  too,  in  the  same  or- 
der, which  is  that  of  the  respective  seasons  of  the 
year, — which,  be  it  noted,  began  with  the  spring,  in 
the  middle  of  our  month  of  March.  If  we  compare 
the  calendar  months  with  the  tablets  of  the  poem 
we  will   find  that   they,  in  almost  every  case,  corre- 


HEROES  AND  THE  MYTHICAL  EPOS. 


319 


spond.  As  the  first  tablet  is  unfortunately  still  miss- 
ing, we  cannot  judge  how  far  it  may  have  answered 
to  the  name  of  the  first  month — •'  the  Altar  of  Bel." 
But  the  second  month,  called  that  of  "  the  Propi- 
tious Bull,"  or  the  "  Friendly  Bull,"  very  well  corre- 
sponds to  the  second  tablet  which  ends  with  Izdu- 
bar's  sending  for  the  seer  Eabani,  half  bull  half  man, 
while  the  name  and  sign  of  the  third,  "  the  Twins," 
clearly  alludes  to  the  bond  of  friendship  concluded 
between  the  two  heroes,  who  became  inseparable. 
Their  victory  over  the  tyrant  Khumbaba  in  the 
fifth  tablet  is  symbolized  by  the  sign  representing 
the  victory  of  the  Lion  over  the  Bull,  often  abbre- 
viated into  that  of  the  Lion  alone,  a  sign  plainly 
enough  interpreted  by  the  name  "  Month  of  Fire," 
so  appropriate  to  the  hottest  and  driest  of  seasons 
even  in  moderate  climes — -July-August.  What 
makes  this  interpretation  absolutely  conclusive  is 
the  fact  that  in  the  symbolical  imagery  of  all  the 
poetry  of  the  East,  the  Lion  represents  the  princi- 
ple of  heat,  of  fire.  The  seventh  tablet,  containing 
the  wooing  of  the  hero  by  the  goddess  Ishtar,  is  too 
plainly  reproduced  in  the  name  of  the  correspond- 
ing month,  "  the  Month  of  the  Message  of  Ishtar," 
to  need  explanation.  The  sign,  too,  is  that  of  a 
woman  with  a  bow,  the  usual  mode  of  representing 
the  goddess.  The  sign  of  the  eighth  month,  "  the 
Scorpion,"  commemorates  the  gigantic  Warders  of 
the  Sun,  half  men  half  scorpions,  whom  Izdubar 
encounters  when  he  starts  on  his  journey  to  the 
land  of  the  dead.  The  ninth  month  is  called  *'  the 
Cloudy,"  surely  a    meet    name  for  November-De- 


?20 


TIIK  STORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 


cember,  and  in  no  way  inconsistent  with  the  con- 
tents of  the  ninth  tablet,  which  shows  Izdubar  nav- 
igating the  "  Waters  of  Death."  In  the  tenth 
month  (December-January),  the  sun  reaches  his 
very  lowest  point,  that  of  the  winter  solstice  with 
its  shortest  days,  whence  the  name  "  Month  of  the 
Cavern  of  the  Setting  Sun,"  and  the  tenth  tablet 
tells  how  Izdubar  reached  the  goal  of  his  journey, 
the  land  of  the  illustrious  dead,  to  which  his  great 
ancestor  has  been  translated.  To  the  eleventh 
month,  "  the  Month  of  the  Curse  of  Rain,"  with  the 
sign  of  the  Waterman, — (January-l'ebruary  being 
in  the  low  lands  of  the  two  rivers  the  time  of  the 
most  violent  and  continuous  rains) — answers  the 
eleventh  tablet  with  the  account  of  the  Deluge. 
The  "Fishes  of  Ea "  accompany  the  sun  in  the 
twelfth  month,  the  last  of  the  dark  season,  as  he 
emerges,  purified  and  invigorated,  to  resume  his 
triumphant  career  with  the  beginning  of  the  new 
year.  From  the  context  and  sequence  of  the  m\'th, 
it  would  appear  that  the  name  of  the  first  month, 
"  the  Altar  of  Bel,"  must  have  had  something  to  do 
with  the  reconciliation  of  the  god  after  the  Deluge, 
from  which  humanity  may  be  said  to  take  a  new 
beginning,  which  would  make  the  name  a  most  au- 
spicious one  for  the  new  year,  while  the  sign — a  Ram 
— might  allude  to  the  animal  sacrificed  on  the  altar. 
Each  month  being  placed  under  the  protection  of 
some  particular  deity  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that 
Anu  and  Bel  are  the  patrons  of  the  first  month,  Ea 
of  the  second,  (in  connection  with  the  wisdom  of 
fiabani,  who   is   called  "  the  creature  of  fia,")  while 


HEROES  AND  THE  MYTHICAL  EPOS.  321 

Ishtar  presides  over  the  sixth,  ("  Message  of  Ish- 
tar,")  and  Raman,  the  god  of  the  atmosphere,  of 
rain  and  storm  and  thunder,  over  the  eleventh,  ("  the 
Curse  of  Rain  "). 

20.  The  solar  nature  of  the  adventurous  career 
attributed  to  the  favorite  national  hero  of  Chaldea, 
now  universally  admitted,  was  first  pointed  out  by 
Sir  Henry  Rawlinson :  but  it  was  Francois  Lenor- 
mant  who  followed  it  out  and  established  it  in  its 
details.  His  conclusions  on  the  subject  are  given 
in  such  clear  and  forcible  language,  that  it  is  a 
pleasure  to  reproduce  them:* — "  ist.  The  Chal- 
deans and  Babylonians  had,  concerning  the  twelve 
months  of  the  year,  myths  for  the  most  part  belong- 
ing to  the  series  of  traditions  anterior  to  the  separa- 
tion of  the  great  races  of  mankind  which  descended 
from  the  highlands  of  Pamir,  since  we  find  analo- 
gous myths  among  the  pure  Semites  and  other  na- 
tions. As  early  as  the  time  when  they  dwelt  on  the 
plains  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates,  they  connected 
these  myths  with  the  different  epochs  of  the  year, 
not  with  a  view  to  agricultural  occupations,  but  in 
connection  with  the  great  periodical  phenomena  of 
the  atmosphere  and  the  different  stations  in  the 
sun's  yearly  course,  as  they  occurred  in  that  par- 
ticular region  ;  hence  the  signs  characterizing  the 
twelve  solar  mansions  in  the  Zodiac  and  the  sym- 
bolical names  given  to  the  months  by  the  Accads. 
— 2d.  It  was  those  myths,  strung  together  in  their 
successive  order,  which  served  as  foundation  to  the 


*  "  Les  Premieres  Civilisations,"  Vol.  II.,  pp.  78  £f. 


^22  THE  STORY  OF  CHaLDEA. 

epic  story  of  Izdubar,  the  fiery  and  solar  hero,  and 
in  the  poem  which  was  copied  at  Erech  by  Asshur- 
banipal's  order  each  of  them  formed  the  subject  of 
one  of  the  twelve  tablets,  making  up  the  number  of 
twelve  separate  books  or  chapters  answering  the 
twelve  months  of  the  year." — Even  though  the  evi- 
dence is  apparently  so  complete  as  not  to  need  fur- 
ther confirmation,  it  is  curious  to  note  that  the  signs 
which  compose  the  name  of  Izdubar  convey  the 
meaning  "  mass  of  fire,"  while  Hasisadra's  Accadian 
name  means  "  the  sun  of  life,"  "  the  morning  sun," 
and  his  father's  name,  Ubaratutu,  is  translated  "the 
glow  of  sunset." 

21.  George  Smith  indignantly  repudiated  this 
mythic  interpretation  of  the  hero's  exploits,  and 
claimed  for  them  a  strictly  historical  character. 
But  we  have  seen  that  the  two  are  by  no  means 
incompatible,  since  history,  when  handed  down 
through  centuries  by  mere  oral  tradition,  is  liable  to 
many  \'icissitudes  in  the  telling  and  retelling,  and 
people  are  sure  to  arrange  their  favorite  and  most 
familiar  stories,  the  mythical  signification  of  which 
has  long  been  forgotten,  around  the  central  figure 
of  the  heroes  they  love  best,  around  the  most  im- 
portant but  vaguely  recollected  events  in  their  na- 
tional life.  Hence  it  came  to  pass  that  identically 
the  same  stories,  with  but  slight  local  variations, 
were  told  of  heroes  in  different  nations  and  coun- 
tries ;  for  the  stock  of  original,  or,  as  one  may  say, 
primary  myths  is  comparatively  small  and  the  same 
for  all,  dating  back  to  a  time  when  mankind  was 
not   yet    divided.     In    the    course  of  ages  and  mi- 


HEKOES  AND   THE  MYTHICAL  EPOS. 


323 


grations  it  has  been  altered,  like  a  rich  hereditary 
robe,  to  fit  and  adorn  many  and  very  different  per- 
sons. 

22.  One  of  the  prettiest,  oldest,  and  most  univer- 
sally favorite  solar  myths  is  the  one  which  represents 
the  Sun  as  a  divine  being,,  youthful  and  of  surpass- 
ing beauty,  beloved  by  or  wedded  to  an  equally 
powerful  goddess,  but  meeting  a  premature  death 
by  accident  and  descending  into  the  dark  land 
of  shades,  from  which,  however,  after  a  time  he 
returns  as  glorious  and  beautiful  as  before.  In 
this  poetical  fancy,  the  land  of  shades  symbolizes 
the  numb  and  lifeless  period  of  winter  as  aptly  as 
the  Waters  of  Death  in  the  Izdubar  Epic,  while  the 
seeming  death  of  the  young  god  answers  to  the 
sickening  of  the  hero  at  that  declining  season  of  the 
year  when  the  sun's  rays  lose  their  vigor  and  are 
overcome  by  the  powers  of  darkness  and  cold.  The 
goddess  who  loves  the  fair  young  god,  and  mourns 
him  with  passionate  grief,  until  her  wailings  and 
prayers  recall  him  from  his  death-like  trance,  is  Na- 
ture herself,  loving,  bountiful,  ever  productive,  but 
pale,  and  bare,  and  powerless  in  her  widowhood, 
while  the  sun-god,  the  spring  of  life  whence  she 
draws  her  very  being,  lies  captive  in  the  bonds  of 
their  common  foe,  grim  Winter,  which  is  but  a  form 
of  Death  itself.  Their  reunion  at  the  god's  resur- 
rection in  spring  is  the  great  wedding-feast,  the 
revel  and  holiday-time  of  the  world. 

23.  This  simple  and  perfectly  transparent  myth 
has  been  worked  out  more  or  less  elaborately  in  all 
the  countries  of  the   East,  and  has  found  its  way  in 


324  ^'^^^  STOKY  OF  CHALDEA. 

some  form  or  other  into  all  the  nations  of  the  three 
great  white  races — of  Japhet,  Shem,  and  Ham — yet 
here  again  the  precedence  in  point  of  time  seems 
due  to  the  older  and  more  primitive— the  Yellow  or 
Turanian  race  ;  for  the  most  ancient,  and  probably 
original  form  of  it  is  the  one  which  was  inherited  by 
the  Semitic  settlers  of  Chaldea  from  their  Shumiro- 
Accadian  predecessors,  as  shown  by  the  Accadian 
name  of  the  young  solar  god,  DuMUZI,  "  the  un- 
fortunate husband  of  the  goddess  Ishtar,"  as  he  is 
called  in  the  sixth  tablet  of  the  Izdubar  epic.  The 
name  has  been  translated  "  Divine  Offspring,"  but 
in  later  times  lost  all  signification,  being  corrupted 
into  Tammuz.  In  some  Accadian  hymns  he  is  in- 
voked as  "  the  Shepherd,  the  lord  Dumuzi,  the 
lover  of  Ishtar."  Well  could  a  nomadic  and  pas- 
toral people  poetically  liken  the  sun  to  a  shepherd, 
whose  flocks  were  the  fleecy  clouds  as  they  speed 
across  the  vast  plains  of  heaven  or  the  bright,  innu- 
merable stars.  This  comparison,  as  pretty  as  it  is 
natural,  kept  its  hold  in  all  ages  and  nations  on  the 
popular  fancy,  which  played  on  it  an  infinite  xariety 
of  ingenious  changes,  but  it  is  onh'  cuneiform  sci- 
ence which  has  proved  that  it  could  be  traced  back 
to  the  very  earliest  race  whose  culture  has  left  its 
mark  on  the  world. 

24.  Of  Dumuzi's  tragic  death  no  text  deciphered 
until  now  unfortunately  gives  the  details.  Only 
the  remarkable  fragment  about  the  black  pine  of 
Eridhu,  "  marking  the  centre  of  the  earth,  in  the 
dark  forest,  into  the  heart  whereof  man  hath  not 
penetrated,"    (see   p.  287)    tantalizingly  ends    with 


HEROES  AND  THE  MYTHICAL  EPOS.  325 

these  suggestive  words-  "Within  it  Dumuzi  .  .  ." 
Scholars  have  found  reason  for  conjecturing  that 
this  fragment  was  the  beginning  of  a  mythical  nar- 
rative recounting  Dumuzi's  death,  which  must  have 
been  represented  as  taking  place  in  that  dark  and 
sacred  forest  of  Eridhu, — probably  through  the 
agency  of  a  wild  beast  sent  against  him  by  a  jealous 
and  hostile  power,  just  as  the  bull  created  by  Anu 
was  sent  against  Izdubar.*  One  thing,  however,  is 
sure,  that  both  in  the  earlier  (Turanian)  and  in  the 
later  (Semitic)  calendary  of  Chaldea,  there  was  a 
month  set  apart  in  honor  and  for  the  festival  of 
Dumuzi.  It  was  the  month  of  June-July,  begin- 
ning at  the  summer  solstice,  when  the  days  begin  to 
shorten,  and  the  sun  to  decline  towards  its  lower 
winter  point — a  retrograde  movement,  ingeniously 
indicated  by  the  Zodiacal  sign  of  that  month,  the 
Cancer  or  Crab.  The  festival  of  Dumuzi  lasted 
during  the  six  first  days  of  the  month,  with  proces- 
sions and  ceremonies  bearing  two  distinct  charac- 
ters. The  worshippers  at  first  assembled  in  the 
guise  of  mourners,  with  lamentations  and  loud  wail- 
ings,  tearing  of  clothes  and  of  hair,  as  though  cele- 
brating the  young  god's  funeral,  while  on  the  sixth 
day  his  resurrection  and  reunion  to  Ishtar  was  com- 
memorated with  the  noisiest,  most  extravagant  de- 
monstrations of  rejoicing.  This  custom  is  alluded 
to  in  Izdubar's  scornful  answer  to  Ishtar's  love- 
message,  when   he  sa3's  to  her :  "  Thou  lovedst  Du- 


*  A.  H.  Sayce,  "Babylonian  Literature,"  p.  39;  Fr.  Lenormant, 
"  II  Mito  di  Adone-Tammuz,"  pp.  12-13. 


326  THE  STORY  OF  CJ/ALDEA. 

Yiwxzx,  for  ivhoin  they  tnoiirn  year  after  year ^'  and  was 
witnessed  by  the  Jews  when  they  were  carried  pris- 
oners to  Babylon  as  late  as  600  B.C.,  as  expressly 
mentioned  by  Ezekiel,  the  prophet  of  the  Captiv- 
ity : — "  Then  he  brought  me  to  the  door  of  the 
Lord's  house  which  was  towards  the  north  ;  and  be- 
hold, there  sat  the  ivoDien  iveeping  for  Tanuiiiiay 
(Ezekiel,  iii.  14.) 

25.  A  favorite  version  of  Dumuzi's  resurrection 
was  that  which  told  how  Ishtar  herself  followed 
him  into  the  Lower  World,  to  claim  him  from  their 
common  foe,  and  thus  yielded  herself  for  a  time 
into  the  power  of  her  rival,  the  dread  Queen  of  the 
Dead,  who  held  her  captive,  and  would  not  have  re- 
leased her  but  for  the  direct  interference  of  the 
great  gods.  This  was  a  rich  mine  of  epic  material, 
from  which  songs  and  stories  must  have  flowed 
plentifully.  We  are  lucky  enough  to  possess  a 
short  epic  on  the  subject,  in  one  tablet,  one  of  the 
chief  gems  of  the  indefatigable  George  Smith's 
discoveries,^ — a  poem  of  great  literary  beauty,  and 
nearly  complete  to  within  a  few  lines  of  the  end, 
which  are  badly  injured  and  scarcely  legible.  It  is 
known  under  the  name  of  "  The  Descent  OF  ISH- 
TAR,"  as  it  relates  only  this  one  incident  of  the 
myth.  The  opening  lines  are  unsurpassed  for 
splendid  poetry  and  sombre  grandeur  in  any,  even 
the  most  advanced  literature. 

26.  "Towards  the  land  whence  there  is  no  return,  towards  the 
house  of  corruption,  Ishtar,  the  daughter  of  Sin,  has  turned  her 
mind  ....  towards  the  dwelling  that  has  an  entrance  but  no 
exit,  towards  the  road  that  may  be  travelled  but  not  retraced,  tow- 


HEROES  AXD   THE  MVTH/CAL   EPOS. 


527 


ards  the  hall  from  which  the  light  of  day  is  shut  out,  where  hunger 
feeds  on  dust  and  mud,  where  light  is  never  seen,  where  the  shades 
of  the  dead  dwell  in  the  dark,  clothed  with  wings  like  birds.  On 
the  lintel  of  the  gate  and  in  the  lock  dust  lies  accumulated. — Ishtar, 
when  she  reached  the  land  whence  there  is  no  return,  to  the  keeper 
of  the  gate  signified  her  command :  '  Keeper,  open  thy  gate  that  I 
may  pass.  If  thou  openest  not  and  I  may  not  enter,  I  will  smite  the 
gate,  and  break  the  lock,  I  will  demolish  the  threshold  and  enter  by 
force;  then  will  I  let  loose  the  dead  to  return  to  the  earth,  that  they 
may  live  and  eat  again ;  I  will  make  the  risen  dead  more  numerous 
than  the  living.'  The  gate-keeper  opened  his  lips  and  spoke: — 'Be 
appeased,  O  Lady,  and  let  me  go  and  report  thy  name  to  Allat  the 
Queen.'" 

Here  follow  a  few  much  injured  lines,  the  sense 

of  which  could  not  be  restored  in  its  entirety.     The 

substance    is    that   the    gate-keeper   announces  to 

Allat  that  her  sister  Ishtar  has  come  for  the  Water 

of  Life,  which  is  kept  concealed  in  a  distant  nook 

of   her  dominions,  and  Allat  is  greatly  disturbed  at 

the  news.     But  Ishtar  announces  that  she  comes  in 

sorrow,  not  enmity  : — 

"  I  wish  to  weep  over  the  heroes  who  have  left  their  wives.  I  wish 
to  weep  over  the  wives  who  have  been  taken  from  their  husbands' 
arms.  I  wish  to  weep  over  the  Only  Son — (a  name  of  Dumuzi) — 
who  has  been  taken  away  before  his  time." 

Then  Allat  commands  the  keeper  to  open  the 
gates  and  take  Ishtar  through  the  sevenfold  en- 
closure, dealing  by  her  as  by  all  who  come  to  those 
gates,  that  is,  stripping  her  of  her  garments  ac- 
cording to  ancient  custom. 

"  The  keeper  went  and  opened  the  gate  :  '  Enter,  O  Lady,  and  may 
the  halls  of  the  Land  whence  there  is  no  return  be  gladdened  by  thy 
presence.'  At  the  first  gate  he  bade  her  enter  and  laid  his  hand  on 
her ;  he  took  the  high  headdress  from  her  head  :  '  Why,  O  keeper, 
takest  thou  the  high  headdress  from  my  head.''' — '  Enter,  O  Lady; 
such  is  Allat's  command-"  " 


3  J  8  '^^^  ^ TOK  Y  OF  ClIA  LI  EA . 

The  same  scene  is  repeated  at  each  of  the  seven 
gates ;  the  keeper  at  each  strips  Ishtar  of  some 
article  of  her  attire — her  earrings,  her  necklace, 
her  jewelled  girdle,  the  bracelets  on  her  arms  and 
the  bangles  at  her  ankles,  and  lastly  her  long  flow- 
ing garment.  On  each  occasion  the  same  words 
are  repeated  by  both.  When  Ishtar  entered  the 
presence  of  Allat,  the  queen  looked  at  her  and 
taunted  her  to  her  face  :  then  Ishtar  could  not  con- 
trol her  anger  and  cursed  her.  Allat  turned  to  her 
chief  minister  Namtar,  the  god  of  Pestilence — meet 
servant  of  the  queen  of  the  dead  ! — who  is  also  the 
god  of  Fate,  and  ordered  him  to  lead  Ishtar  away 
and  afflict  her  with  sixty  dire  diseases, — to  strike 
her  head  and  her  heart,  and  her  eyes,  her  hands 
and  her  feet,  and  all  her  limbs.  So  the  goddess 
was  led  away  and  kept  in  durance  and  in  misery. 
Meanwhile  her  absence  was  attended  with  most 
disastrous  consequences  to  the  upper  world.  With 
her,  life  and  love  had  gone  out  of  it;  there  were  no 
marriages  any  more,  no  births,  either  among  men  or 
animals;  nature  was  at  a  standstill.  Great  was  the 
commotion  among  the  gods.  They  sent  a  messen- 
ger to  Ea  to  expose  the  state  of  affairs  to  him,  and, 
as  usual,  to  invoke  his  advice  and  assistance.  Ea, 
in  his  fathomless  wisdom,  revolved  a  scheme.  He 
created  a  phantom,  Uddusunamir. 

"' Go,' he  said  to  him; 'towards  the  Land  whence  there  is  no  re- 
turn direct  thy  face;  the  seven  gates  of  the  Arallu  will  open  before 
thee.  Allat  shall  see  thee  and  rejoice  at  thy  coming,  her  heart  shall 
grow  calm  and  her  wrath  shall  vanish.  Conjure  her  with  the  name 
of  the  great  gods,  stiffen  thy  neck  and  keep  thy  mind  on  the  Spring 


HEROES  AND   THE  MYTHICAL  EPOS. 


329 


of  Life.  Let  the  Lady  (Ishtar)  gain  access  to  the  Spring  of  Life  and 
drink  of  its  waters.' — Allat,  when  she  heard  these  things,  beat  her 
breast  and  bit  her  fingers  with  rage.  Consenting,  sore  against  her 
will,  she  spoke: — 'Go,  Uddusunamir!  May  the  great  jailer  place 
thee  in  durance  !  May  the  foulness  of  the  city  ditches  be  thy  food, 
the  waters  of  the  city  sewers  thy  drink !  A  dark  dungeon  be  thy 
dwelling,  a  sharp  pole  thy  seat ! '  " 

Then  .she  ordered  Namtar  to  let  Ishtar  drink  of 
the  Spring  of  Life  and  to  bear  her  from  her  sight, 
Namtar  fulfilled  her  command  and  took  the  goddess 
through  the  seven  enclosures,  at  each  gate  restoring 
to  her  the  article  of  her  attire  that  had  been  taken  at 
her  entrance.     At  the  last  gate  he  said  to  her: 

"  Thou  hast  paid  no  ransom  to  Allat  for  thy  deliverance ;  so  now 
return  to  Dumuzi,  the  lover  of  thy  youth ;  sprinkle  over  him  the 
sacred  waters,  clothe  him  in  splendid  garments,  adorn  him  with 
gems." 

26.  The  last  lines  are  so  badly  mutilated  that  no 
efforts  have  as  yet  availed  to  make  their  sense  any- 
thing but  obscure,  and  so  it  must  remain,  unless 
new  copies  come  to  light.  Yet  so  much  is,  at  all 
events,  evident,  that  they  bore  on  the  reunion  of 
Ishtar  and  her  young  lover.  The  poem  is  thus  com- 
plete in  itself ;  but  some  think  that  it  was  introduced 
into  the  Izdubar  epic  as  an  independent  episode, 
after  the  fashion  of  the  Deluge  narrative,  and,  if  so, 
it  is  supposed  to  have  been  part  of  the  seventh  tab- 
let. Whether  such  were  really  the  case  or  no,  mat- 
ters little  in  comparison  with  the  great  importance 
these  two  poems  possess  as  being  the  most  ancient 
presentations,  in  a  finished  literary  form,  of  the  two 
most    significant  and    universal    nature-myths — the 


330 


THE  STONY  OF  CHALDEA. 


Solar  and  the  Chthonic  (sec  p.  272J,  the  poetical 
fancies  in  which  primitive  mankind  clothed  the  won- 
ders of  the  heax'cns  and  the  mystcr)'  of  the  earth,  be- 
ing content  to  admire  and  imacjine  where  it  could 
not  comprehend  and  explain.  We  shall  be  led  back 
continually  to  these,  in  very  truth, /r/;//^?r;'  myths, 
for  they  not  only  served  as  groundwork  to  much  of 
the  most  beautiful  poetry  of  the  world  but  sug. 
gested  some  of  its  loftiest  and  most  cherished  relig- 
ious conceptions. 

*Fora  metrical  version  by  Prof.  Dyer  of  the  story  of  "  Ishtar's 
Descent,"  see  Appendix,  p.  . 


■  Tjtto  " 

£71 

HK  Vf\p^^^c)i 

'^Sm^ 

^^^^ 

i 

VIII. 

RELIGION  AND  MYTHOLOGY. — IDOLATRY  AND  AN- 
THROPOMORPHISM.—THE  CHALDEAN  LEGENDS 
AND  THE  BOOK  OF  GENESIS.— RETROSPECT. 

I.  In  speaking  of  ancient  nations,  the  words  "  Re- 
ligion "  and  "  Mythology  "  are  generally  used  indis- 
criminately and  convertibly.  Yet  the  conceptions 
they  express  are  essentially  and  radically  different. 
The  broadest  difference,  and  the  one  from  which  all 
others  flow,  is  that  the  one— Religion— is  a  thing  of 
the  feelings,  while  the  other — Mythology — is  a  thing 
of  the  imagination.  In  other  words,  Religion  comes 
from  WITHIN — from  that  consciousness  of  limited 
power,  that  inborn  need  of  superior  help  and  guid- 
ance, forbearance  and  forgiveness,  from  that  long- 
ing for  absolute  goodness  and  perfection,  which 
make  up  the  distinctively  human  attribute  of  "  re- 
ligiosity," that  attribute  which,  together  with  the 
faculty  of  articulate  speech,  sets  Man  apart  from 
and  above  all  the  rest  of  animated  creation.  (See  p. 
149.)  Mythology,  on  the  other  hand,  comes  wholly 
from  WITHOUT.  It  embodies  impressions  received 
by  the  senses  from  the  outer  world  and  transformed 
by  the    poetical    faculty  into    iinages   and    stories. 

33^ 


332  THE  STORY  OF  CHAI.DEA. 

('See  definition  of  "  Myth  "  on  p.  294.)  Professor 
Max  Miiller  of  Oxford  has  been  the  first,  in  his 
standard  work  "  The  Science  of  Language,"  clearly 
to  define  this  radical  difference  between  the  two 
conceptions,  which  he  has  never  since  ceased  to 
sound  as  a  keynote  through  the  long  series  of  his 
works  devoted  to  the  study  of  the  religions  and 
mythologies  of  various  nations.  A  few  illustrations 
from  the  one  nation  with  which  we  have  as  yet  be- 
come familiar  will  help  once  for  all  to  establish  a 
thorough  understanding  on  this  point,  most  essen- 
tial as  it  is  to  the  comprehension  of  the  workings  of 
the  human  mind  and  soul  throughout  the  long  roll 
of  struggles,  errors  and  triumphs,  achievements  and 
failures  which  we  call  the  history  of  mankind. 

2.  There  is  no  need  to  repeat  here  instances  of 
the  Shumiro-Accadian  and  Chaldean  myths ;  the 
last  three  or  four  chapters  have  been  filled  with  them. 
But  the  instances  of  religious  feeling,  though  scat- 
tered in  the  same  field,  have  to  be  carefully  gleaned 
out  and  exhibited,  for  they  belong  to  that  undercur- 
rent of  the  soul  which  pursues  its  way  unobtrusively 
and  is  often  apparently  lost  beneath  the  brilliant  play 
of  poetical  fancies.  But  it  is  there  nevertheless,  and 
e\ery  now  and  then  forces  its  way  to  the  surface 
shining  forth  with  a  startling  purity  and  beauty. 
When  the  Accadian  poet  invokes  the  Lord  "  who 
knows  lie  from  truth,"  "  who  knows  the  truth  that 
is  in  the  soul  of  man,"  who  "  maketh  lies  to  vanish," 
who  "turneth  wicked  plots  to  a  happy  issue" — 
this  is  religion,  not  mythology,  for  this  is  not  a  story, 
it  is  the  expression  of  a  feeling.     That  "  the  Lord  " 


RELIGION  AND  MYTHOLOG Y.  333 

whose  divine  omniscience  and  goodness  is  thus  glo- 
rified is  really  the  Sun,  makes  no  difference ;  that  is 
an  error  of  judgment,  a  want  of  knowledge,  but  the 
religious  feeling  is  splendidly  manifest  in  the  invo- 
cation.    But  when,  in  the  same  hymn,  the  Sun  is 
described  as  "  stepping  forth  from  the  background 
of  the  skies,  pushing  back  the  bolts  and  opening  the 
gate  of  the  brilliant   heaven,  and  raising  his  head 
above  the  land,"  etc.,  (see  p.  172)  that  is  only  a  very 
beautiful,  imaginative  description  of  a  glorious  nat- 
ural phenomenon— sunrise ;  it  is  magnificent  poetry, 
religious  in  so  far  as  the  sun  is   considered  as  a  Be- 
ing,''a  Divine  Person,  the  object  oT  an   intensely  de- 
vout and  grateful  feeling  ;  still  this  is  not  religion,  it 
is  mythology,  for  it  presents  a  material  image  to  the 
mind,  and  one  that  can  be  easily  turned  into  nar- 
rative, into  a  .y/^rj',— which,  in  fact,  suggests  a  hero, 
a   king,   and    a   story.     Take,  again,    the    so-called 
"  Penitential  Psalms."     To  the  specimen  given  on 
p.  178,  let  us  add,  for  greater  completeness,  the  fol- 
lowing three  remarkable  fragments : 

I.  "  God,  my  creator,  take  hold  of  my  arms !  Direct  the  breath  of 
my  mouth,  my  hands  direct,  O  lord  of  light." 

II.  "  Lord,  let  not  thy  servant  sink !  Amidst  the  tumultuous  waters 
take  hold  of  his  hand !  " 

III.  "  He  who  fears  not  his  God,  will  be  cut  off  even  like  a  reed. 
He  who  honors  not  his  goddess,  his  bodily  strength  will  waste  away  ; 
like  to  a  star  of  heaven,  his  splendor  will  pale  ;  he  will  vanish  like  to 
the  waters  of  the  night." 

3.  All  this  is  religion,  of  the  purest,  loftiest 
kind  ;  fruitful,  too,  of  good,  the  only  real  test  of 
true  religion.     The  deep  humility,  the  trustful  ap- 


peal,  the  feeling  of  dependence,  the  consciousness 
of  weakness,  of  sin,  and  the  longing  for  deliverance 
from  them — these  are  all  very  different  from  the 
pompous  phrases  of  empty  praise  and  sterile  admi- 
ration ;  they  are  things  which  flow  from  the  heart, 
not  the  fancy,  which  lighten  its  weight  of  sorrow 
and  self-reproach,  brighten  it  with  hope  and  good 
resolutions,  in  short,  make  it  happier  and  better — 
what  no  mere  imaginative  poetry,  however  fine,  can 
do. 

4.  The  radical  distinction,  then,  between  religious 
feeling  and  the  poetical  faculty  of  mythical  crea- 
tion, is  easy  to  establish  and  follow  out.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  two  are  so  constantly  blended,  so 
almost  inextricably  interwoven  in  the  sacred  poe- 
try of  the  ancients,  in  their  views  of  life  and  the 
world,  and  in  their  worship,  that  it  is  no  wonder 
they  should  be  so  generally  confused.  The  most  cor- 
rect way  of  putting  the  case  would  be,  perhaps,  to 
say  that  the  ancient  Religions — meaning  by  the  word 
the  whole  body  of  sacred  poetry  and  legends  as  well 
as  the  national  forms  of  worship — were  made  up 
originally  in  about  equal  parts  of  religious  feeling 
and  of  mythology.  In  many  cases  the  exuberance  of 
the  imagination  gained  the  upper  hand,  and  there 
was  such  a  riotous  growth  of  mythical  imagery  and 
stories  that  the  religious  feeling  was  almost  stifled 
under  them.  In  others,  again,  the  myths  them- 
selves suggested  religious  ideas  of  the  deepest  im- 
port and  loftiest  sublimity.  Such  was  particularly 
the  case  with  the  solar  and  Chthonic  Myths — the 
poetical  presentation  of  the  career  of  the   Sun   and 


RELIGION  AND  MYTHOLOGY. 


335 


the  Earth — as  connected  with  the  doctrine  of  the 
soul's  immortality. 

5.  A  curious  and  significant  observation  has  been 
made  in  excavating  the  most  ancient  graves  in  the 
world,  those  of  the  so-called  Mound-builders.  This 
name  is  not  that  of  any  particular  race  or  nation,  but 
is  given  indiscriminately  to  all  those  peoples  who 
lived,  on  any  part  of  the  globe,  long  before  the  earli- 
est beginnings  of  even  the  remotest  times  which  have 
been  made  historical  by  preserved  monuments  or 
inscriptions  of  any  kind.  All  we  know  of  those 
peoples  is  that  they  used  to  bury  their  dead — at 
least  those  of  special  renown  or  high  rank — in  deep 
and  spacious  stone-lined  chambers  dug  in  the  ground, 
with  a  similar  gallery  leading  to  them,  and  covered 
by  a  mound  of  earth,  sometimes  of  gigantic  dimen- 
sions— a  very  hill.  Hence  the  name.  Of  their 
life,  their  degree  of  civilization,  what  they  thought 
and  believed,  we  have  no  idea  except  in  so  far  as 
the  contents  of  the  graves  give  us  some  indications. 
For,  like  the  later,  historical  races,  of  which  we  find 
the  graves  in  Chaldea  and  every  other  country  of 
the  ancient  world,  they  used  to  bury  along  with  the 
dead  a  multitude  of  things  :  vessels,  containing  food 
and  drink  ;  weapons,  ornaments,  household  imple- 
ments. The  greater  the  power  or  renown  of  the 
dead  man,  the  fuller  and  more  luxurious  his  funeral 
outfit.  It  is  indeed  by  no  means  rare  to  find  the 
skeleton  of  a  great  chief  surrounded  by  those  of  sev- 
eral women,  and,  at  a  respectful  distance,  several 
more  skeletons — evidently  of  slaves — whose  frac- 
tured skuls   more   than   sggest  the  ghastly    custom 


336 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


of  killing  \vi\'cs  and  servants  to  do  honor  to  an  illus- 
trious dead  and  to  keep  him  company  in  his  narrow 
underground  mansion.  Nothing  but  a  belief  in  the 
continuation  of  existence  after  death  could  have 
prompted  these  practices.  For  what  was  the  sense 
of  giving  him  wives  and  slaves,  and  domestic  arti- 
cles of  all  kinds,  food  and  weapons,  unless  it  were 
for  his  service  and  use  on  his  journey  to  the  un- 
known land  where  he  was  to  enter  on  a  new  stage 
of  existence,  which  the  survivors  could  not  but 
imagine  to  be  a  reproduction,  in  its  simple  condi- 
tions and  needs,  of  the  one  he  was  leaving?  There 
is  no  race  of  men,  however  primitive,  however  un- 
tutored, in  which  this  belief  in  immortality  is  not 
found  deeply  rooted,  positive,  unquestioning.  The 
belief  is  implanted  in  man  by  the  icisli ;  it  answers 
one  of  the  most  imperative,  unsilenceable  longings 
of  human  nature.  For,  in  proportion  as  life  is 
pleasant  and  precious,  death  is  hideous  and  repel- 
lent. The  idea  of  utter  destruction,  of  ceasing  to 
be,  is  intolerable  to  the  mind  ;  indeed,  the  senses  re- 
volt against  it,  the  mind  refuses  to  grasp  and  ad- 
mit it.  Yet  death  is  very  real,  and  it  is  inevitable ; 
and  all  human  beings  that  come  into  the  world 
have  to  learn  to  face  the  thought  of  it,  and  the  re- 
ality too,  in  others,  before  they  lie  down  and  accept 
it  for  themselves.  But  what  if  death  be  not  de- 
struction? If  it  be  but  a  passage  from  this  into  an- 
other world, — distant,  unknown  and  perforce  mys- 
terious, but  certain  nevertheless,  a  world  on  the 
threshold  of  which  the  earthly  body  is  dropped  as 
an  unnecessary  garment  ?     Then  were  death  shorn 


RELIGION  AND  MYTHOLOGY.  337 

of  half  its  terrors.     Indeed,  the  only  unpleasantness 
about  it  would  be,  for  him  who  goes,  the  momentary 
pang  and  the  uncertainty  as  to  what  he  is  going  to; 
and,  for  those  who  remain,  the  separation   and  the 
loathsome    details— the   disfigurement,   the  corrup- 
tion.    But  these  are   soon  gotten  over,  while  the 
separation  is  only  for  a  time ;  for  all  must  go  the 
same   way,  and  the  late-comers   will  find,  will  join 
their  lost  ones  gone  before.     Surely  it  must  be  so  ! 
It  were  too  horrible  if  it  were  not  ;  it  must  bc—\i  is  ! 
The  process  of  feeling  which  arrived  at  this  conclu- 
sion and  hardened   it   into   absolute  faith,  is  very 
plain,  and  we  can  easily,  each  of  us,  reproduce    it  in 
our  own  souls,  independently  of  the  teachings  we 
receive  from  childhood.     But  the  mind  is  naturally 
inquiring,  and   involuntarily  the  question  presents 
itself :  this  solution,  so  beautiful,  so  acceptable,  so 
universal,— but    so    abstract— what     suggested    it? 
What  analogy  first  led  up  to   it  from  the  material 
world  of  the  senses  ?     To  this   question  we  find   no 
reply  in  so  many  words,  for  it  is  one  of  those  that 
go  to  the  very  roots  of  our  being,  and   such  gener- 
ally remain   unanswered.     But   the   graves  dug  by 
those  old  Mound-Builders  present  a  singular  feature, 
which  almost  seems  to  point  to  the  answer.     The 
tenant   of  the  funereal  chamber  is   most  frequently 
found    deposited  in  a  crouching  attitude,    his  back 
leaning  against  the   stone-lined  wall,  and   zvith  his 
face  turned  toivards  the  West,  in  the  direction  of  the 

setting  sun Here,  then,  is  the  suggestion,  the 

analogy  !     The  career  of  the  sun  is  very  like  that  of 
man.     His  rising  in  the  east  is  like  the  birth  of  man. 


338  THE  S TOR  Y  Ol-  CHA  LDEA. 

During  the  hours  of  his  power,  which  we  call  the 
Day,  he  does  his  allotted  work,  of  giving  light  and 
warmth  to  the  world,  now  riding  radiant  and  trium- 
phant across  an  azure  sky,  now  obscured  by  clouds, 
struggling  through  mists,  or  overuhelmed  by  tem- 
pests. How  like  the  vicissitudes  that  checker  the 
somewhat  greater  number  of  hours — or  days — of 
which  the  sum  makes  up  a  human  life !  Then 
when  his  appointed  time  expires,  he  sinks  down, — 
lower,  lower — and  disappears  into  darkness, — dies. 
So  docs  man.  What  is  this  night,  death, ^  Is  it  de- 
struction, or  only  a  rest,  or  an  absence  ?  It  is  at  all 
events  not  destruction.  For  as  surely  as  we  see  the 
sun  vanish  in  the  west  this  evening,  feeble  and 
beamless,  so  surely  shall  we  behold  him  to-morrow 
morning  rise  again  in  the  east,  glorious,  vigorous 
and  young.  What  happens  to  him  in  the  interval? 
Who  knows  ?  Perhaps  he  sleeps,  perhaps  he  trav- 
els through  countries  we  know  not  of  and  does 
other  work  there  ;  but  one  thing  is  sure  :  that  he  is 
not  dead,  for  he  will  be  up  again  to-morrow.  Why 
should  not  man,  whose  career  so  much  resembles 
the  sun's  in  other  respects,  resemjale  him  in  this? 
Let  the  dead,  then,  be  placed  with  their  faces  to 
the  west,  in  token  that  theirs  is  but  a  setting  like 
the  sun's,  to  be  followed  by  another  rising,  a  re- 
newed existence,  though  in  another  and  unknown 
world. 

6.  All  this  is  sheer  poetry  and  mythology.  But 
how  great  its  beauty,  how  obvious  its  hopeful  sug- 
gestiveness,  if  it  could  appeal  to  the  groping  minds 
of  those    primitive    men,  the  old    Mound-Builders, 


RELIGION  AND  MYTHOLOGY. 


339 


and  there  lay  the  seed  of  a  faith  which  has  been 
more  and  more  clung  to,  as  mankind  progressed  in 
spiritual  culture !  For  all  the  noblest  races  have 
cherished  and  worked  out  the  myth  of  the  setting 
sun  in  the  most  manifold  ways,  as  the  symbol  of 
the  soul's  immortality.  The  poets  of  ancient  India, 
some  three  thousand  years  ago,  made  the  Sun  the 
leader  and  king  of  the  dead,  who,  as  they  said, 
followed  where  he  had  gone  first,  "  showing  the 
way  to  many."  The  Egyptians,  perhaps  the  wisest 
and  most  spiritual  of  all  ancient  nations,  came  to 
make  this  myth  the  keystone  of  their  entire  relig- 
ion, and  placed  all  their  burying-places  in  the  west, 
amidst  or  beyond  the  Libyan  ridge  of  hills  behind 
w^hich  the  sun  vanished  from  the  eyes  of  those  who 
dwelt  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile.  The  Greeks  im- 
agined a  happy  residence  for  their  bravest  and 
wisest,  which  they  called  the  Islands  of  the  Blest, 
and  placed  in  the  furthest  West,  amidst  the  waters 
of  the  ocean  into  which  the  sun  descends  for  his 
nightly  rest. 

7.  But  the  sun's  course  is  twofold.  If  it  is  com- 
plete— beginning  and  ending — within  the  given 
number  of  hours  which  makes  the  day,  it  is  re- 
peated on  a  larger  scale  through  the  cycle  of 
months  which  makes  the  year.  The  alternations  of 
youth  and  age,  triumph  and  decline,  power  and 
feebleness,  are  there  represented  and  are  regularly 
brought  around  by  the  different  seasons.  But  the 
moral,  the  symbol,  is  still  the  same  as  regards  final 
immortality.  For  if  summer  answers  to  the  heyday 
of  noon,  autumn  to  the  milder  glow  and  the  extinc- 


340 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


tion  of  evening,  and  winter  to  the  joyless  dreariness 
of  night,  spring,  like  the  morning,  ever  brings  back 
the  god,  the  hero,  in  the  perfect  splendor  of  a 
glorious  resurrection.  It  is  the  solar-year  myth 
with  its  magnificent  accompaniment  of  astronomi- 
cal pageantry,  which  took,  the  greater  hold  on  the 
fancy  of  the  scientifically  inclined  Chaldeans,  and 
which  we  find  embodied  with  such  admirable  com- 
pleteness in  their  great  epic.  We  shall  see,  later 
on,  more  exclusively  imaginative  and  poetical  races 
showing  a  marked  preference  to  the  career  of  the 
sun  as  the  hero  of  a  day,  and  making  the  several 
incidents  of  the  solar-day  myth  the  subject  of  an 
infinite  variety  of  stories,  brilliant  or  pathetic, 
tender  or  heroic.  But  there  is  in  nature  another 
order  of  phenomena,  intimately  connected  with  and 
dependent  on  the  phases  of  the  sun,  that  is,  the 
seasons,  yet  very  different  in  their  individual  char- 
acter, though  pointing  the  same  way  as  regards 
the  suggestion  of  resurrection  and  immortality — 
the  phenomena  of  the  Earth  and  the  Seed.  These 
may  in  a  more  general  way  be  described  as  Nature's 
productive  power  paralyzed  during  the  numbed 
trance  of  winter,  which  is  as  the  sleep  of  death, 
when  the  seed  lies  in  the  ground  hid  from  sight 
and  cold,  even  as  a  dead  thing,  but  awaking  to  new 
life  in  the  good  time  of  spring,  when  the  seed,  in 
which  life  was  never  extinct  but  only  dormant, 
bursts  its  bonds  and  breaks  into  verdant  loveliness 
and  bountiful  crops.  This  is  the  essence  and  mean- 
ing of  the  Chthonic  or  Earth-mj'th,  as  universal  as 
the  Sun-myth,  but  of  which  different  features  have 


RELIGION  AND  MYTHOLOGY.  341 

also  been  unequally  developed  by  different  races 
according  to  their  individual  tendencies.  In  the 
Chaldean  version,  the  "  Descent  of  Ishtar,"  the  par- 
ticular incident  of  the  seed  is  quite  wanting,  unless 
the  name  of  Dumuzi's  month,  "The  Boon  of  the 
Seed  "  ("  Lc  Bicnfait  de  la  Semencey  Lenormant), 
may  be  considered  as  alluding  to  it.  It  is  her  fair 
young  bridegroom,  the  beautiful  Sun-god,  whom  the 
widowed  goddess  of  Nature  mourns  and  descends 
to  seek  among  the  dead.  This  aspect  of  the  myth 
is  almost  exclusively  developed  in  the  religions  of 
most  Canaanite  and  Semitic  nations  of  the  East, 
where  we  shall  meet  with  it  often  and  often.  And 
here  it  may  be  remarked,  without  digressing  or 
anticipating  too  far,  that  throughout  the  ancient 
world,  the  Solar  and  Chthonic  cycles  of  myths  have 
been  the  most  universal  and  important,  the  very 
centre  and  groundwork  of  many  of  the  ancient 
mythic  religions,  and  used  as  vehicles  for  more  or 
less  sublime  religious  conceptions,  according  to  the 
higher  or  lower  spiritual  level  of  the  worshipping 
nations. 

8.  It  must  be  confessed  that,  amidst  the  nations 
of  Western  Asia,  this  level  was,  on  the  whole,  not  a 
very  lofty  one.  Both  the  Hamitic  and  Semitic 
races  were,  as  a  rule,  of  a  naturally  sensuous  disposi- 
tion ;  the  former  being,  moreover,  distinguished  by 
a  very  decidedly  material  turn  of  mind.  The  Cush- 
ites,  of  whom  a  branch  perhaps  formed  an  import- 
ant portion  of  the  mixed  population  of  Lower 
Mesopotamia,  and  especially  the  Canaanites,  who 
spread  themselves  over  all  the  country  between  the 


-.,2  THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

great  rivers  and  the  Western  Sea — the  Mediter- 
ranean— were  no  exception  to  this  rule.  If  their 
priests — their  professed  thinkers,  the  men  trained 
through  generations  for  intellectual  pursuits — had 
groped  their  way  to  the  perception  of  One  Divine 
Power  ruling  the  world,  they  kept  it  to  themselves, 
or,  at  least,  out  of  sight,  behind  a  complicated  array 
of  cosmogonic  myths,  nature -myths,  symbols  and 
parables,  resulting  in  Chaldea  in  the  highly  artifi- 
cial system  which  has  been  sketched  above — (see 
Chapters  V.  and  VI.) — a  system  singularly  beauti- 
ful and  deeply  significant,  but  of  which  the  mass  of 
the  people  did  not  care  to  unravel  the  subtle  intri- 
cacies, being  quite  content  to  accept  it  entire,  in 
the  most  literal  spirit,  elementary  nature-gods,  astro- 
nomical abstractions,  cosmogonical  fables  and  all — 
questioning  nothing,  at  peace  in  their  mind  and 
righteously  self-conscious  if  they  sacrificed  at  the 
various  time-honored  local  shrines,  and  conformed 
to  the  prescribed  forms  and  ceremonies.  To  these 
they  privately  added  those  innumerable  practices 
of  conjuring  and  rites  of  witchcraft,  the  heirloom  of 
the  older  lords  of  the  soil,  which  we  saw  the  col- 
leges of  learned  priests  compelled,  as  strangers  and 
comparative  newcomers,  to  tolerate  and  even  sanc- 
tion by  giving  them  a  place,  though  an  inferior 
one,  in  their  own  nobler  system  (see  p.  250).  Thus 
it  was  that,  if  a  glimmer  of  Truth  did  feebly  illu- 
mine the  sanctuar>^  and  its  immediate  ministers,  the 
people  at  large  dwelt  in  the  outer  darkness  of  hope- 
less polytheism  and,  worse  still,  of  idolatrj'.  For, 
in  bowing  before  the  altars  of  their  temples  and  the 


RELIGION  AND  MYTHOLOGY. 


343 


images  in  wood,  stone  or  metal  in  which  art  strove 
to  express  what  the  sacred  writings  taught,  the  un- 
learned worshippers  did  not  stop  to  consider  that 
these  were  but  pieces  of  human  workmanship,  deriv- 
ing their  sacredness  solely  from  the  subjects  they 
treated  and  the  place  they  adorned,  nor  did  they 
strive  to  keep  their  thoughts  intent  on  the  invisible 
Beings  represented  by  the  images.  It  was  so  much 
simpler,  easier  and  more  comfortable  to  address 
their  adoration  to  what  was  visible  and  near,  to  the 
shapes  that  were  so  closely  within  reach  of  their 
senses,  that  seemed  so  directly  to  receive  their  offer- 
ings and  prayers,  that  became  so  dearly  familiar 
from  long  associations.  The  bulk  of  the  Chaldean 
nation  for  a  long  time  remained  Turanian,  and  the 
materialistic  grossness  of  the  original  Shumiro-Acca- 
dian  religion  greatly  fostered  its  idolatrous  tenden- 
cies. The  old  belief  in  the  talismanic  virtues  of  all 
images  (see  p.  162)  continued  to  assert  itself,  and 
was  easily  transferred  to  those  representing  the  di- 
vinities of  the  later  and  more  elaborate  worship. 
Some  portion  of  the  divine  substance  or  spirit  was 
supposed  somehow  to  pass  into  the  material  repre- 
sentation and  reside  therein.  This  is  very  clear 
from  the  way  in  which  the  inscriptions  speak  of  the 
statues  of  gods,  as  though  they  were  persons.  Thus 
the  famous  cylinder  of  the  Assyrian  conqueror  As- 
shurbanipal  tells  how  he  brought  back  "  the  god- 
dess Nana,"  (i.e.,  her  statue)  who  at  the  time  of  the 
great  Elamite  invasion,  "  had  gone  and  dwelt  in 
Elam,  a  place  not  appointed  for  her,"  and  now 
spoke  to  him  the  king,  saying:  "From  the  midst 


344 


THE  STORY  OF  CIJALDEA. 


of  Elam  bring  me  out  and  cause  me  to  enter  into 
Bitanna  " — her  own  old  sanctuary  at  Erech,  "which 
she  had  delighted  in."  Then  again  the  Assyrian 
conquerors  take  especial  pride  in  carr)ing  off  with 
them  the  statues  of  the  gods  of  the  nations  they 
subdue,  and  never  fail  to  record  the  fact  in  these 
words:  "  I  carried  away  their  gods,''  beyond  a  doubt 
with  the  idea  that,  in  so  doing,  they  put  it  out  of 
their  enemies'  power  to  procure  the  assistance  of 
their  divine  protectors. 

9.  In  the  population  of  Chaldea  the  Semitic  cle- 
ment was  strongly  represented.  It  is  probable  that 
tribes  of  Semites  came  into  the  country  at  intervals, 
in  successive  bands,  and  for  a  long  time  wandered 
unhindered  with  their  flocks,  then  gradually  amalga- 
mated with  the  settlers  they  found  in  possession, 
and  whose  culture  they  adopted,  or  else  formed 
separate  settlements  of  their  own,  not  even  then, 
however,  quite  losing  their  pastoral  habits.  Thus 
the  Hebrew  tribe,  when  it  left  Ur  under  Terah  and 
Abraham  (see  page  121),  seems  to  have  resumed  its 
nomadic  life  with  the  greatest  willingness  and  ease, 
after  dwelling  a  long  time  in  or  near  that  popular 
city,  the  principal  capital  of  Shumir,  the  then  domi- 
nant South.  Whether  this  tribe  were  driven  out 
of  Ur,  as  some  will  have  it,*  or  left  of  their  own 
accord,  it  is  perhaps  not  too  bold  to  conjecture  that 
the  causes  of  their  departure  were  partly  connected 
with  religious  motives.  For,  alone  among  the  Chal- 
deans and  all  the  surrounding  nations,  this  handful 

*  Maspero,  "  Histoire  Ancienne,"  p.  173. 


RELIGIOX  AND  MYTHOLOGY. 


345 


of  Semites  had  disentangled  the  conception  of  mono- 
theism from  the  obscuring  wealth  of  Chaldean  my- 
thology, and  had  grasped  it  firmly.  At  least  their 
leaders  and  elders,  the  patriarchs,  had  arrived  at  the 
conviction  that  the  One  living  God  was  He  whom 
they  called  "the  Lord,"  and  they  strove  to  inspire 
their  people  with  the  same  faith,  and  to  detach  them 
from  the  mythical  beliefs,  the  idolatrous  practices 
which  they  had  adopted  from  those  among  whom 
they  lived,  and  to  which  they  clung  with  the  tenac- 
ity of  spiritual  blindness  and  long  habit.  The  later 
Hebrews  themselves  kept  a  clear  remembrance  of 
their  ancestors  having  been  heathen  polytheists, 
and  their  own  historians,  writing  more  than  a  thou- 
sand years  after  Abraham's  times,  distinctly  state 
the  fact.  In  a  long  exhortation  to  the  assembled 
tribes  of  Israel,  which  they  put  in  the  mouth  of 
Joshua,  the  successor  of  Moses,  they  make  him  say  : 
— "  Your  fathers  dwelt  on  the  other  side  of  the  flood  " 
(i.e.,  the  Euphrates,  or  perhaps  the  Jordan)  "  in  old 
time,  even  Terah,  the  father  of  Abraham  and  the 
father  of  Nachor,  and  they  served  other  gods.''  And 
further  on  :  "  .  .  .  Put  away  the  gods  zvJiicJi  your 
fathers  served  on  the  other  side  of  the  flood  and  in 

Egypt,  and  serve  ye  the  Lord Choose  you 

this  day  whom  you  will  serve,  whether  the  gods 
which  your  fathers  served  that  were  on  the  other 
side  of  the  flood,  or  the  gods  of  the  Amorites,  in 
whose  land  ye  dwell  ;  as  for  me  and  my  house,  we 
will  serve  the  Lord."  (Joshua,  xxiv.  2,  14,  15.) 
What  more  probable  than  that  the  patriarchs,  Terah 
and  Abraham,  should  have  led  their  people  out  of 


346 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


the  miclst  of  the  Chaldeans,  away  from  their  great 
capital  Ur,  which  held  some  of  the  oldest  and  most 
renowned  Chaldean  sanctuaries,  and  forth  into  the 
wilderness,  partly  with  the  object  of  removing  them 
from  corrupting  associations.  At  all  events  that 
branch  of  the  Hebrew  tribe  which  remained  in 
Mesopotamia  with  Nahor,  Abraham's  brother  (sec 
Gen.  xxiv.  xxix.  and  ff.),  continued  heathen  and 
idolatrous,  as  we  see  from  the  detailed  narrative 
in  Genesis  xxxi.,  of  how  Rachel  "had  stolen  the 
images  that  were  her  fathers''  (xxxi.  19),  when 
Jacob  fled  from  Laban's  house  with  his  family,  his 
cattle  and  all  his  goods.  No  doubt  as  to  the  value 
and  meaning  attached  to  these  "images"  is  left 
when  we  see  Laban,  after  having  overtaken  the 
fugitives,  reprove  Jacob  in  these  words: — "And 
now,  though  thou  wouldst  needs  be  gone,  because 
thou  sore  longedst  for  thy  father's  house,  yet  where- 
fore hast  thou  stolen  my  gods  ?"  (xxxi.  30),  to  which 
Jacob,  who  knows  nothing  of  Rachel's  theft,  replies  : 
— "With  whomsoever  tJioii  findest  thy  gods,  let  him 
not  live"  (xxxi.  32).  But  "Rachel  had  taken  the 
images  and  put  them  in  the  camel's  furniture,  and 
sat  upon  them.  And  Laban  searched  all  the  tent, 
but  found  them  not "  (xxxi.  34).  Now  what  could 
have  induced  Rachel  to  commit  so  dishonorable  and, 
moreover,  dangerous  an  action,  but  the  idea  that, 
in  carrying  away  these  images,  her  family's  house- 
hold "  gods,"  she  would  insure  a  blessing  and  pros- 
perity to  herself  and  her  house?  That  by  so  doing, 
she  would,  according  to  the  heathens'  notion,  rob 
her  father  and  old  home  of  what  she  wished  to  se- 


KELIGIOX  AXD  MYTHOLOGY. 


347 


cure  lierself  (see  page  344),  does  not  seem  to  have 
disturbed  her.  It  is  clear  from  this  that,  even  after 
she  was  wedded  to  Jacob  the  monotheist,  she  re- 
mained a  heathen  and  idolater,  though  she  concealed 
the  fact  from  him. 

10.  On  the  other  hand,  wholesale  emigration  was 
not  sufficient  to  remove  the  evil.  Had  it  indeed 
been  a  wilderness,  unsettled  in  all  its  extent,  into 
which  the  patriarchs  led  forth  their  people,  they 
might  have  succeeded  in  weaning  them  completely 
from  the  old  influences.  But,  scattered  over  it  and 
already  in  possession,  were  numerous  Canaanite 
tribes,  wealthy  and  powerful  under  their  chiefs  — 
Amorites,  and  Hivites,  and  Hittites,  and  many 
more.  In  the  pithy  and  picturesque  Biblical  lan- 
guage, "the  Canaanite  was  in  the  land"  (Genesis, 
xii.  6),  and  the  Hebrews  constantly  came  into  con- 
tact with  them,  indeed  were  dependent  on  their 
tolerance  and  large  hospitality  for  the  freedom  with 
which  they  were  suffered  to  enjoy  the  pastures  of 
"  the  land  wherein  they  were  strangers,"  as  the  vast 
region  over  which  they  ranged  is  frequently  and 
pointedly  called.  Being  but  a  handful  of  men,  they 
had  to  be  cautious  in  their  dealings  and  to  keep  on 
good  terms  with  the  people  among  whom  they  were 
brought.  "  I  am  a  stranger  and  a  sojourner  with 
you,"  admits  Abraham,  "  bowing  himself  down  be- 
fore the  people  of  the  land,"  (a  tribe  of  Hittites 
near  Hebron,  west  of  the  Dead  Sea),  when  he  offers 
to  buy  of  them  a  field,  there  to  institute  a  family 
burying-place  for  himself  and  his  race;  for  he  had 
no  legal  right  to  any  of  the  land,  not   so  much   as 


348 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


would  yield  a  sepulchre  to  his  dead,  even  though 
the  "children  of  Heth  "  treat  him  with  high  honor, 
and,  in  speaking  to  him,  sa}',  "  My  lord,"  and  "  thou 
art  a  mighty  prince  among  us"  (Genesis,  xxiii.). 
This  transaction,  conducted  on  both  sides  in  a  spirit 
of  great  courtesy  and  liberality,  is  not  the  only  in- 
stance of  the  friendliness  with  which  the  Canaanite 
owners  of  the  soil  regarded  the  strangers,  both  in 
Abraham's  lifetime  and  long  after  his  death.  His 
grandson,  the  patriarch  Jacob,  and  his  sons  find  the 
same  tolerance  among  the  Hivites  of  Shalem,  who 
thus  commune  among  themselves  concerning  them : 
— "  These  men  are  peaceable  with  us  ;  therefore  let 
them  dwell  in  the  land  and  trade  therein  ;  for  the 
land,  behold  it  is  large  enough  for  them ;  let  us  take 
their  daughters  for  wives,  and  let  us  give  them  our 
daughters."  And  the  Hivite  prince  speaks  in  this 
sense  to  the  Hebrew  chief: — "  The  soul  of  my  son 
longeth  for  your  daughter:  I  pray  you,  give  her  him 
to  wife.  And  make  ye  marriages  with  us,  and  give 
your  daughters  unto  us  and  take  our  daughters 
unto  you.  And  ye  shall  dwell  with  us,  and  the 
land  shall  be  before  you  ;  dwell  and  trade  ye  therein, 
and  get  you  possessions  therein." 

II.  But  this  question  of  intermarriage  was  always 
a  most  grievous  one  ;  the  question  of  all  others  at 
which  the  Hebrew  leaders  strictly  drew  the  line  of 
intercourse  and  good-fellowship;  the  more  stub- 
bornly that  their  people  were  naturally  much  in- 
clined to  such  unions,  since  they  came  and  went 
freely  among  their  hosts,  and  their  daughters  went 
out,  unhindered,  "  to  see  the  daughters  of  the  land." 


RELIGION  AND  MYTHOLOGY. 


349 


Now  all  the  race  of  Canaan  followed  religions  very 
similar  to  that  of  Chaldea,  only  grosser  still  in  their 
details  and  forms  of  worship.  Therefore,  that  the 
old  idolatrous  habits  might  not  return  strongly  upon 
them  under  the  influence  of  a  heathen  household, 
the  patriarchs  forbade  marriage  with  the  women  of 
the  countries  through  which  they  passed  and  re- 
passed with  their  tents  and  flocks,  and  themselves 
abstained  from  it.  Thus  we  see  Abraham  sending 
his  steward  all  the  way  back  to  Mesopotamia  to 
seek  a  wife  for  his  son  Isaac  from  among  his  own 
kinsfolk  who  had  stayed  there  with  his  brother 
Nahor,  and  makes  the  old  servant  solemnly  swear 
"  by  the  Lord,  the  God  of  heaven  and  the  God  of 
earth  "  :  "  Thou  shalt  not  take  a  wife  unto  my  son 
of  the  daughters  of  the  Canaanites  among  whom 
I  dwell."  And  when  Esau,  Isaac's  son,  took  two 
wives  from  among  the  Hittite  women,  it  is  expressly 
said  that  they  were  "  a  grief  of  mind  unto  Isaac  and 
Rebekah ;  "  and  Isaac's  most  solemn  charge  to  his 
other  son,  Jacob,  as  he  sends  him  from  him  with 
his  blessing,  is:  "Thou  shalt  not  take  a  wife  of  the 
daughters  of  Canaan."  Whithersoever  the  Hebrews 
came  in  the  course  of  their  long  wanderings,  which 
lasted  many  centuries,  the  same  twofold  prohibi- 
tion .was  laid  on  them  :  of  marrying  with  native 
women — "for  surely,"  they  are  told,  "they  will 
turn  away  your  heart  after  their  gods,"  and  of  fol- 
lowing idolatrous  religions,  a  prohibition  enforced 
by  the  severest  penalties,  even  to  that  of  death. 
But  nothing  could  keep  them  long  from  breaking 
the  law  in  both  respects.     The  very  frequency  and 


350 


THE  STORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 


emphasis  with  which  the  command  is  repeated,  the 
violence  of  the  denunciations  against  offenders,  the 
terrible  punishments  threatened  and  often  actually 
inflicted,  sufficiently  show  how  imperfectly  and 
unwillingly  it  was  obej'ed.  Indeed  the  entire  Old 
Testament  is  one  continuous  illustration  of  the 
unslackcning  zeal  with  which  the  wise  and  enlight- 
ened men  of  Israel — its  lawgivers,  leaders,  priests 
and  prophets — pursued  their  arduous  and  often 
almost  hopeless  task,  of  keeping  their  people  pure 
from  worships  and  practices  which  to  them,  who 
had  realized  the  fallacy  of  a  belief  in  many  gods, 
were  the  most  pernicious  abominations.  In  this 
spirit  and  to  this  end  they  preached,  they  fought, 
they  promised,  threatened,  punished,  and  in  this 
spirit,  in  later  ages,  they  wrote. 

12.  It  is  not  until  a  nation  is  well  established  and 
enjoys  a  certain  measure  of  prosperity,  security  and 
the  leisure  which  accompanies  them,  that  it  begins 
to  collect  its  own  traditions  and  memories  and  set 
them  down  in  order,  into  a  continuous  narrative. 
So  it  was  with  the  Hebrews.  The  small  tribe 
became  a  nation,  which  ceased  from  its  wanderings 
and  conquered  for  itself  a  permanent  place  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.  But  to  do  this  took  many  hun- 
dred years,  years  of  memorable  adventures,  and 
vicissitudes,  so  that  the  materials  which  accumu- 
lated for  the  future  historians,  in  stories,  traditions, 
songs,  were  ample  and  varied.  Much,  too,  must 
have  been  written  down  at  a  comparatively  early 
period.  Hoiv  early  must  remain  uncertain,  since 
there    is   unfortunately   nothing    to    show    at    what 


RELIGION  AND  MYTHOLOGY.  35 1 

time  the  Hebrews  learned  the  art  of  writing  and 
their  characters  thought,  Hke  other  alphabets,  to  be 
borrowed  from  those  of  the  Phoenicians.  However 
that  may  be,  one  thing  is  sure  :  that  the  different 
books  which  compose  the  body  of  the  Hebrew 
Sacred  Scriptures,  which  we  call  "  the  Old  Testa- 
ment," were  collected  from  several  and  different 
sources,  and  put  into  the  shape  in  which  they  have 
descended  to  us  at  a  very  late  period,  some  almost 
as  late  as  the  birth  of  Christ.  The  first  book  of  all, 
that  of  Genesis,  describing  the  beginnings  of  the 
Jewish  people, — ("  Genesis'''  is  a  Greek  word,  which 
means  "  Origin  ") — belongs  at  all  events  to  a  some- 
what earlier  date.  It  is  put  together  mainly  of  two 
narratives,  distinct  and  often  different  in  point  of 
spirit  and  even  fact.  The  later  compiler  who  had 
both  sources  before  him  to  work  into  a  final  form, 
looked  on  both  with  too  much  respect  to  alter 
either,  and  generally  contented  himself  with  giving 
them  side  by  side,  (as  in  the  story  of  Hagar,  which  is 
told  twice  and  differently,  in  Chap.  XVI.  and  Chap. 
XXL),  or  intermixing  them  throughout,  so  that  it 
takes  much  attention  and  pains  to  separate  them, 
(as  in  the  story  of  the  Flood,  Chap.  VI.-VIII.).  This 
latter  story  is  almost  identical  with  the  Chaldean 
Deluge-legend  included  in  the  great  Izdubar  epic,  of 
which  it  forms  the  eleventh  tablet.  (See  Chap.  VII.) 
Indeed,  every  child  can  see,  by  comparing  the  Chal- 
dean cosmogonic  and  mythical  legends  with  the 
first  chapters  of  the  Book  of  Genesis,  those  which 
relate  to  the  beginnings  not  so  much  of  the  Hebrew 
people  as  of  the  human  race  and  the  world   in  gen- 


352 


THE  STORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 


cral,  that  both  must  originall}'  have  flowed  from 
one  and  the  same  spring  of  tradition  and  priestly 
lore.  The  resemblances  are  too  staring,  close,  con- 
tinuous, not  to  exclude  all  rational  surmises  as  to 
casual  coincidences.  The  differences  are  such  as 
most  strikingl)'  illustrate  the  transformation  which 
the  same  material  can  undergo  when  treated  by  two 
races  of  different  moral  standards  and  spiritual  ten- 
dencies. Let  us  briefly  examine  both,  side  by  side. 
13.  To  begin  with  the  Creation.  The  description 
of  the  primeval  chaos — a  waste  of  waters,  from 
which  "  the  darkness  was  not  lifted,"  (see  p.  261) — 
answers  very  well  to  that  in  Genesis,  i.  2  :  "  And  the 
earth  was  without  form  and  void ;  and  darkness  was 
upon  the  face  of  the  deep."  The  establishment  of 
the  heavenly  bodies  and  the  creation  of  the  animals 
also  correspond  remarkably  in  both  accounts,  and 
even  come  in  the  same  order  (see  p.  264,  and  Gene- 
sis, i.  14-22),  The  famous  cylinder  of  the  British 
Museum  (see  No.  61,  p.  266)  is  strong  presumption  in 
favor  of  the  identity  of  the  Chaldean  version  of  the 
first  couple's  disobedience  with  the  Biblical  one.  We 
have  seen  the  important  position  occupied  in  the 
Chaldean  religion  by  the  symbol  of  the  Sacred  Tree, 
which  surely  corresponds  to  the  Tree  of  Life  in 
Eden  (see  p.  268),  and  probably  also  to  that  of 
Knowledge,  and  the  different  passages  and  names 
ingeniously  collected  and  confronted  by  scholars 
leave  no  doubt  as  to  the  Chaldeans  having  had  the 
legend  of  an  Eden,  a  garden  of  God  (see  p.  274).  A 
better  preserved  copy  of  the  Creation  tablets  with 
the  now  missing  passages    ma}-  be   recovered    any 


RELIGION  AND   MYTHOLOGY. 


353 


day,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  they  will 
be  found  as  closely  parallel  to  the  Biblical  narrative 
as  those  that  have  been  recovered  until  now.  But 
even  as  we  have  them  at  present  it  is  very  evident 
that  the  groundwork,  the  material,  is  the  same  in 
both.  It  is  the  manner,  the  spirit,  which  differs. 
In  the  Chaldean  account,  polytheism  runs  riot. 
Every  element,  every  power  of  nature — Heaven, 
Earth,  the  Abyss,  Atmosphere,  etc. — has  been  per- 
sonified into  an  individual  divine  being  actively  and 
severely  engaged  in  the  great  work.  The  Hebrew 
narrative  is  severely  monotheistic.  In  it  GOD  does 
all  that  "  the  gods  "  between  them  do  in  the  other. 
Every  poetical  or  allegorical  turn  of  phrase  is  care- 
fully avoided,  lest  it  lead  into  the  evil  errors  of  the 
sister-nation.  The  symbolical  myths — such  as  that 
of  Bel's  mixing  his  own  blood  with  the  clay  out  of 
which  he  fashions  man,  (see  p.  266) — are  sternly  dis- 
carded, for  the  same  reason.  One  only  is  retained  : 
the  temptation  by  the  Serpent.  But  the  Serpent 
being  manifestly  the  personification  of  the  Evil 
Principle  which  is  forever  busy  in  the  soul  of  man, 
there  was  no  danger  of  its  being  deified  and  wor- 
shipped ;  and  as,  moreover,  the  tale  told  in  this 
manner  very  picturesquely  and  strikingly  points  a 
great  moral  lesson,  the  Oriental  love  of  parable  and 
allegory  could  in  this  instance  be  allowed  free  scope. 
Besides,  the  Hebrew  writers  of  the  sacred  books 
were  not  beyond  or  above  the  superstitions  of  their 
country  and  age  ;  indeed  they  retained  all  of  these 
that  did  not  appear  to  them  incompatible  with 
monotheism.     Thus  throughout   the    Books   of  the 


354 


THE  STORY  OF  CJIALDEA. 


Old  Testament  the  Chaldean  belief  in  witchcraft, 
divination  from  dreams  and  other  signs  is  retained 
and  openly  professed,  and  astrology  itself  is  not 
condemned,  since  among  the  destinations  of  the 
stars  is  mentioned  that  of  serving  to  men  "  for 
signs  ":  "And  God  said,  let  there  be  lights  in  the 
firmament  of  the  heaven  to  divide  the  day  from  the 
night ;  and  let  them  be  for  signs  and  for  seasons, 
and  for  days  and  years"  (Genesis,  i.  14),  Even 
more  explicit  is  the  passage  in  the  triumphal  song 
of  Deborah  the  prophetess,  where  celebrating  the 
victory  of  Israel  over  Sisera,  she  says:  "They 
fought  from  heaven :  the  stars  in  their  courses 
fought  against  Sisera"  (Judges,  v.  20V  But  a  be- 
lief in  astrology  by  no  means  implies  the  admission 
of  several  gods.  In  one  or  two  passages,  indeed, 
we  do  find  an  expression  which  seems  to  have 
slipped  in  unawares,  as  an  involuntary  reminis- 
cence of  an  original  polytheism  ;  it  is  where  God, 
comrhuning  w^ith  himself  on  Adam's  trespass,  says: 
"  Behold,  the  man  is  become  as  -one  of  us,  to  know 
good  and  evil  "  (Gen.  iii.  22).  An  even  clearer 
trace  confronts  us  in  one  of  the  two  names  that  are 
given  to  God.  These  names  are  "Jehovah,"  (more 
correctly  "  Yahveh  ")  and  "  Elohim."  Now  the 
latter  name  is  the  plural  of  E/,  "god,"  and  so  really 
means  "  the  gods."  If  the  sacred  writers  retained  it, 
it  was  certainly  not  from  carelessness  or  inadver- 
tence. As  they  use  it,  it  becomes  in  itself  almost  a 
profession  of  faith.  It  seems  to  proclaim  the  God 
of  their  relision  as   "the  One  God   who   is  all  the 


RELIGIOiV  A  A'D  MYTHOLOG  V.  355 

gods,"  in  whom  all  the  forces  of  the  universe  are 
contained  and  merged. 

14.  There  is  one  feature  in  the  Biblical  narrative, 
which,  at  first  sight,  wears  the  appearance  of  myth- 
ical treatment :  it  is  the  familiar  way  in  which  God 
is  represented  as  coming  and  going,  speaking  and 
acting,  after  the  manner  of  men,  especially  in  such 
passages  as  these:  "And  they  heard  the  voice  of 
the  Lord  God  zvalking  in  the  garden  in  the  cool  of 
the  day "  (Gen.  iii.  8)  ;  or,  "  Unto  Adam  also  and 
to  his  wife  did  the  Lord  God  make  coats  0/  skins  and 
he  clothed  thei?t"  (Gen.  iii.  21).  But  such  a  judg- 
ment would  be  a  serious  error.  There  is  nothing 
mythical  in  this ;  only  the  tendency,  common  to  all 
mankind,  of  endowing  the  Deity  with  human  attri- 
butes of  form,  speech  and  action,  whenever  the  at- 
tempt was  made  to  bring  it  very  closely  within  the 
reach  of  their  imagination.  This  tendency  is  so 
universal,  that  it  has  been  classed,  under  a  special 
name,  among  the  distinctive  features  of  the  human 
mind.  It  has  been  called  ANTHROPOMORPHISM, 
(from  two  Greek  words  Afithropos,  "man,"  and  inor- 
phe,  "form,")  and  can  never  be  got  rid  of,  because 
it  is  part  and  parcel  of  our  very  nature.  Man's 
spiritual  longings  are  infinite,  his  perceptive  fac- 
ulties are  limited.  His  spirit  has  wings  of  flame 
that  would  lift  him  up  and  bear  him  even  beyond 
the  endlessness  of  space  into  pure  abstraction  ;  his 
senses  have  soles  of  lead  that  ever  weigh  him  down, 
back  to  the  earth,  of  which  he  is  and  to  which  he 
must  needs  cling,  to  exist  at  all.  He  can  conceive, 
by  a  great  effort,  an  abstract  idea,  eluding  the  grasp 


356 


THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 


of  senses,  unclothed  in  matter;  but  he  can  realize, 
imagine,  only  by  using  such  appliances  as  the  senses 
supply  him  with.  Therefore,  the  more  fervently  he 
grasps  an  idea,  the  more  closely  he  assimilates  it, 
the  more  it  becomes  materialized  in  his  grasp,  and 
when  he  attempts  to  reproduce  it  out  of  himself — 
behold  !  it  has  assumed  the  likeness  of  himself  or 
something  he  has  seen,  heard,  touched — the  spirit- 
uality of  it  has  become  weighted  with  flesh,  even 
as  it  is  in  himself.  It  is  as  it  were  a  reproduction, 
in  the  intellectual  world,  of  the  eternal  strife,  in 
physical  nature,  between  the  two  opposed  forces  of 
attraction  and  repulsion,  the  centrifugal  and  cen- 
tripetal, of  which  the  final  result  is  to  keep  each 
body  in  its  place,  with  a  well-defined  and  limited 
range  of  motion  allotted  to  it.  Thus,  however 
pure  and  spiritual  the  conception  of  the  Deity 
may  be,  man,  in  making  it  real  to  himself,  in  bring- 
ing it  down  within  his  reach  and  ken,  within  the 
shrine  of  his  heart,  zvill  and  must  perforce  make 
of  it  a  Being,  human  not  only  in  shape,  but  also  in 
thought  and  feeling.  How  otherwise  could  he  grasp 
it  at  all  ?  And  the  accessories  with  which  he  will 
surround  it  will  necessarily  be  suggested  by  his  own 
experience,  copied  from  those  among  which  he 
moves  habitually  himself.  "Walking  in  the  garden 
in  the  cool  of  the  day  "  is  an  essentially  Oriental 
and  Southern  recreation,  and  came  quite  naturally 
to  the  mind  of  a  writer  living  in  a  land  steeped  in 
sunshine  and  sultriness.  Had  the  writer  been  a 
Northerner,  a  denizen  of  snow-clad  plains  and  ice- 
bound   rivers,  the  Lord   might  probably  have  been 


RELIGION  A ND  M YTHOL OGY.  357 

represented  as  coming  in  a  swift,  fur-lined  sleigh. 
Anthropomorphism,  then,  is  in  itself  neither  my- 
thology nor  idolatry  ;  but  it  is  very  clear  that  it 
can  with  the  utmost  ease  glide  into  either  or  both, 
with  just  a  little  help  from  poetry  and,  especially, 
from  art,  in  its  innocent  endeavor  to  fix  in  tangible 
form  the  vague  imaginings  and  gropings,  of  which 
words  often  are  but  a  fleeting  and  feeble  rendering. 
Hence  the  banishment  of  all  material  symbols,  the 
absolute  prohibition  of  any  images  whatever  as  an 
accessory  of  religious  worship,  which,  next  to  the 
recognition  of  One  only  God,  is  the  keystone  of  the 
Hebrew  law : — "  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods 
before  me.  Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee  any 
graven  image,  or  any  likeness  of  anything  that  is  in 
heaven  above,  or  that  is  in  the  earth  beneath,  or 
that  is  in  the  water  under  the  earth. — Thou  shalt 
not  bow  down  thyself  to  them,  nor  serve  them  " 
(Exodus,  XX.  3-5)- 

But,  to  continue  our  parallel. 

15.  The  ten  antediluvian  kings  of  Berosus,  who 
succeed  the  apparition  of  the  divine  Man-Fish,  Ea- 
Oannes  (see  p.  196),  have  their  exact  counterpart  in 
the  ten  antediluvian  patriarchs  of  Genesis,  v.  Like 
the  Chaldean  kings,  the  patriarchs  live  an  unnat- 
ural number  of  years.  Only  the  extravagant  fig- 
ures of  the  Chaldean  tradition  are  considerably  re- 
duced in  the  Hebrew  version.  While  the  former 
allots  to  its  kings  reigns  of  tens  of  thousands  of 
years  (see  p.  196),  the  latter  cuts  them  down  to  hun- 
dreds, and  the  utmost  that   it   allows  to   any  of  its 


358 


THE  STORY  OF  ClIALDEA. 


patriarchs  is  nine  hundred  and  sixty-nine  years  of  life 
(Methuselah). 

16.  The  resemblances  between  the  two  Deluge 
narratives  are  so  obvious  and  continuous,  that  it  is 
not  these,  but  the  differences  that  need  pointing 
out.  Here  again  the  sober,  severely  monotheistic 
character  of  the  Hebrew  narrative  contrasts  most 
strikingly  with  the  exuberant  polytheism  of  the 
Chaldean  one,  in  which  Heaven,  Sun,  Storm.  Sea, 
even  Rain  are  personified,  deified,  and  consistently 
act  their  several  appropriate  and  most  dramatic 
parts  in  the  great  cataclysm,  while  Nature  herself, 
as  the  Great  Mother  of  beings  and  fosterer  of  life,  is 
represented,  in  the  person  of  Ishtar,  lamenting  the 
slaughter  of  men  (see  p.  327).  Apart  from  this 
fundamental  difference  in  spirit,  the  identity  in  all 
the  essential  points  of  fact  is  amazing,  and  varia- 
tions occur  only  in  lesser  details.  The  most  charac- 
teristic one  is  that,  while  the  Chaldean  version  de- 
scribes the  building  and  furnishing  of  a  ship,  with 
all  the  accuracy  of  much  seafaring  knowledge,  and 
does  not  forget  even  to  name  the  pilot,  the  Hebrew 
writer,  with  the  clumsiness  and  ignorance  of  nauti- 
cal matters  natural  to  an  inland  people  unfamiliar 
with  the  sea  or  the  appearance  of  ships,  speaks  only 
of  an  ark  or  cJicst.  The  greatest  discrepancy  is  in 
the  duration  of  the  flood,  which  is  much  shorter  in 
the  Chaldean  text  than  in  the  Hebrew.  On  the  sev- 
enth day  already,  Hiisisadra  sends  out  the  dove  (see 
p.  316).  But  then  in  the  Biblical  narrative  itself, 
made  up,  as  was  remarked  above,  of  two  parallel 
texts  joined  together,  this  same  point  is  given  dif- 


RELIGION  A ND  M YTHOLOG  Y. 


159 


ferently  in  different  places.  According  to  Genesis, 
vii.  12,  "  the  rain  was  upon  the  earth  forty  days  and 
forty  nights,"  while  verse  24  of  the  same  chapter 
tells  us  that  "  the  waters  prevailed  upon  the  earth 
an  hundred  and  fifty  days."  Again,  the  number  of 
the  saved  is  far  larger  in  the  Chaldean  account :  Ha- 
sisadra  takes  with  him  into  the  ship  all  his  men-ser- 
vants, his  women-servants,  and  even  his  "  nearest 
friends,"  while  Noah  is  allowed  to  save  only  his  own 
immediate  family,  "  his  sons,  and  his  wife,  and  his 
sons' wives  "  (Genesis,  vi.  18).  Then,  the  incident 
of  the  birds  is  differently  told  :  Hasisadra  sends 
out  three  birds,  the  dove,  the  swallow,  and  the  ra- 
ven ;  Noah  only  two — first  the  raven,  then  three 
times  in  succession  the  dove.  But  it  is  startling  to 
find  both  narratives  more  than  once  using  the  same 
words.  Thus  the  Hebrew  wTiter  tells  how  Noah 
"  sent  forth  a  raven,  which  went  to  and  fro,"  and 
how  "  the  dove  found  no  rest  for  the  sole  of  her  foot 
and  returned."'  Hasisadra  relates  :  "  I  took  out  a 
dove  and  sent  it  forth.  The  dove  went  forth,  to  and 
fro,  but  found  no  resting-place  and  returned."  And 
further,  when  Hasisadra  describes  the  sacrifice  he 
offered  on  the  top  of  Mount  Nizir,  after  he  came 
forth  from  the  ship,  he  says  :  "  The  gods  smelled  a 
savor  ;  the  gods  smelled  a  sweet  savor."  "  And  the 
Lord  smelled  a  sweet  savor,"  says  Genesis, — viii. 
21 — of  Noah's  burnt-offering.  These  few  hints 
must  suffice  to  show  how^  instructive  and  enter- 
taining is  a  parallel  study  of  the  two  narratives  ; 
it  can  be  best  done  by  attentively  reading  both  al- 


360 


THE  STORY  OF  CIIALDEA. 


ternately,  and  comparing  them  together,  paragraph 
b)'  paragraph. 

17.  The  legend  of  the  Tower  of  Languages  (see 
above,  p.  293,  and  Genesis,  xi.  3-9),  is  the  last  in 
the  series  of  parallel  Chaldean  and  Hebrew  tradi- 
tions. In  the  Bible  it  is  immediately  followed  b\- 
the  detailed  genealogy  of  the  Hebrews  from  Shcm 
to  Abraham.  Therewith  evidently  ends  the  con- 
nection between  the  two  people,  who  are  severed 
for  all  time  from  the  moment  that  Abraham  goes 
forth  with  his  tribe  from  Ur  of  the  Chaldees, 
probably  in  the  reign  of  Amarpal  (father  of  Ham- 
murabi), whom  the  Bible  calls  Amraphel,  king  of 
Shinear.  The  reign  of  Hammurabi  was,  as  we 
have  already  seen  (see  p.  219),  a  prosperous  and 
brilliant  one.  He  was  originally  king  of  Tintir 
(the  oldest  name  of  Babylon),  and  when  he  united 
all  the  cities  and  local  rulers  of  Chaldea  under  his 
supremacy,  he  asserted  the  pre-eminence  among 
them  for  his  own  city,  which  he  began  to  call  by 
its  new  name,  Ka-DIMIRRA  (Accadian  for  "Gate 
of  God,"  which  was  translated  into  the  Semitic 
BaB-Il).  This  king  in  every  respect  opens  a  new 
chapter  in  the  history  of  Chaldea.  Moreover,  a 
great  movement  was  taking  place  in  all  the  region 
between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Persian  Gulf  ; 
nations  were  forming  and  growing,  and  Chaldea's 
most  formidable  rival  and  future  conqueror,  As- 
syria, was  gradually  gathering  strength  in  the 
north,  a  fierce  young  lion-cub.  By  this  newcomer 
among  nations  our  attention  will  henceforth  mainly 
be  claimed.     Let  us,  therefore,  pause  on    the  high 


RELIGION  AND  MYTHOLOGY. 


361 


place  to  which  we  have  now  arrived,  and,  casting 
a  glance  backward,  take  a  rapid  survey  of  the 
ground  we  have  covered. 

18.  Looking  with  strained  eyes  into  a  past  dim 
and  gray  with  the  scarce-lifting  mists  of  unnum- 
bered ages,  we  behold  our  starting-point,  the  low 
land  by  the  Gulf,  Shumir,  taking  shape  and  color 
under  the  rule  of  Turanian  settlers,  the  oldest 
known  nation  in  the  world.  They  drain  and  till 
the  land,  they  make  bricks  and  build  cities,  and 
prosper  materially.  But  the  spirit  in  them  is  dark 
and  lives  in  cowering  terror  of  self-created  demons 
and  evil  things,  which  they  yet  believe  they  can 
control  and  compel.  So  their  religion  is  one,  not 
of  worship  and  thanksgiving,  but  of  dire  conjur- 
ing and  incantation,  inconceivable  superstition  and 
witchcraft,  an  unutterable  dreariness  hardly  light- 
ened by  the  glimmering  of  a  nobler  faith,  in  the  con- 
ception of  the  wise  and  beneficent  Ea  and  his  ever 
benevolently  busy  son,  Meridug.  But  gradually 
there  comes  a  change.  Shumir  lifts  its  gaze  up- 
ward, and  as  it  takes  in  more  the  beauty  and  the 
goodness  of  the  world — in  Sun  and  Moon  and 
Stars,  in  the  wholesome  Waters  and  the  purifying 
serviceable  Fire,  the  good  and  divine  Powers — the 
Gods  multiply  and  the  host  of  elementary  spirits, 
mostly  evil,  becomes  secondary.  This  change  is 
greatly  helped  by  the  arrival  of  the  meditative, 
star-gazing  strangers,  who  take  hold  of  the  nature- 
worship  and  the  nature-myths  they  find  among 
the  people  to  which  they  have  come — a  higher  and 
more  advanced  race — and  weave  these,   with  their 


362  THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA. 

own  star-worship  and  astrological  lore,  into  a  new 
faith,  a  religious  system  most  ingeniously  com- 
bined, elaborately  harmonized,  and  full  of  pro- 
foundest  meaning.  The  new  religion  is  preached 
not  only  in  words,  but  in  brick  and  stone :  temples 
arise  all  over  the  land,  erected  by  the /^A-^/^ — the 
priest-kings  of  the  different  cities— and  libraries 
in  which  the  priestly  colleges  reverently  treasure 
both  their  own  works  and  the  older  religious  lore 
of  the  country.  The  ancient  Turanian  names  of 
the  gods  are  gradually  translated  into  the  new 
Cushito-Semitic  language ;  yet  the  prayers  and 
hymns,  as  well  as  the  incantations,  are  still  pre- 
served in  the  original  tongue,  for  the  people  of 
Turanian  Shumir  are  the  more  numerous,  and  must 
be  ruled  and  conciliated,  not  alienated.  The  more 
northern  region,  Accad,  is,  indeed,  more  thinly 
peopled ;  there  the  tribes  of  Semites,  who  now 
arrive  in  frequent  instalments,  spread  rapidl}'  and 
unhindered.  The  cities  of  Accad  with  their  temples 
soon  rival  those  of  Shumir  and  strive  to  eclipse 
them,  and  their  patcsis  labor  to  predominate  politi- 
cally over  those  of  the  South.  And  it  is  with  the 
North  that  the  victory  at  first  remains  ;  its  pre-em- 
inence is  asserted  in  the  time  of  Sharrukin  of  Agade, 
about  3800  B.C.,  but  is  resumed  by  the  South  some 
thousand  years  later,  when  a  powerful  dynasty  (that 
to  which  belong  Ur-ea  and  his  son  Dungi)  establishes 
itself  in  Ur,  while  Tintir,  the  future  head  and  cen- 
tre of  the  united  land  of  Chaldea,  the  great  Baby- 
lon, if  existing  at  all,  is  not  yet  heard  of.  It  is 
these   kings  of  Ur  who    first    take    the    significant 


RELIGION  AND  MYTHOLOGY. 


363 


title  "  kings  of  Shumir  and  Accad."  Meanwhile 
new  and  higher  moral  influences  have  been  at 
work  ;  the  Semitic  immigration  has  quickened  the 
half  mythical,  half  astronomical  religion  with  a 
more  spiritual  element — of  fervent  adoration,  of 
prayerful  trust,  of  passionate  contrition  and  self- 
humiliation  in  the  bitter  consciousness  of  sin, 
hitherto  foreign  to  it,  and  has  produced  a  new  and 
beautiful  religious  literature,  which  marks  its  third 
and  last  stage.  To  this  stage  belong  the  often 
mentioned  "  Penitential  Psalms,"  Semitic,  nay, 
rather  Hebrew  in  spirit,  although  still  written  in 
the  old  Turanian  language  (but  in  the  northern 
dialect  of  Accad,  a  fact  that  in  itself  bears  witness 
to  their  comparative  lateness  and  the  locality  in 
which  they  sprang  up),  and  too  strikingly  identical 
with  similar  songs  of  the  golden  age  of  Hebrew 
poetry  in  substance  and  form,  not  to  have  been 
the  models  from  which  the  latter,  by  a  sort  of 
unconscious  heredity,  drew  its  inspirations.  Then 
comes  the  great  Elamite  invasion,  with  its  plunder- 
ing of  cities,  desecration  of  temples  and  sanctua- 
ries, followed  probably  by  several  more  through 
a  period  of  at  least  three  hundred  years.  The  last, 
that  of  Khudur  Lagamar,  since  it  brings  prom- 
inently forward  the  founder  of  the  Hebrew  nation, 
deserves  to  be  particularly  mentioned  by  that 
nation's  historians,  and,  inasmuch  as  it  coincides 
with  the  reign  of  Amarpal,  king  of  Tintir  and  father 
of  Hammurabi,  serves  to  establish  an  important 
landmark  in  the  history  both  of  the  Jews  and  of 
Chaldea.     When  we    reach    this  comparatively  re- 


364  THE  STORY  OF  ClIALDEA. 

cent  date  the  mists  have  in  great  part  rolled  aside, 
and  as  we  turn  from  the  ages  we  have  just  sur- 
veyed to  those  that  still  lie  before  us,  history- 
guides  us  with  a  bolder  step  and  shows  us  the  land- 
scape in  a  twilight  which,  though  still  dim  and 
sometimes  misleading,  is  yet  that  of  breaking  day, 
not  of  descending  night. 

19.  When  we  attempt  to  realize  the  prodigious 
vastncss  and  remoteness  of  the  horizon  thus  opened 
before  us,  a  feeling  akin  to  awe  overcomes  us.  Un- 
til within  a  very  few  years,  Egypt  gloried  in  the 
undisputed  boast  of  being  the  oldest  country  in  the 
world,  i.e.,  of  reaching  back,  by  its  annals  and  mon- 
uments, to  an  earlier  date  than  any  other.  lUit  the 
discoveries  that  arc  continually  being  made  in  the 
valley  of  the  two  great  rivers  have  forever  silenced 
that  boast.  Chaldea  points  to  a  monumentally  re- 
corded date  nearly  4000  B.C.  This  is  more  than 
Egypt  can  do.  Her  oldest  authentic  monuments, 
— her  great  Pyramids,  are  considerably  later.  Mr. 
F.  Hommel,  one  of  the  leaders  of  Assyriology,  forci- 
bly expresses  this  feeling  of  wonder  in  a  recent  pub- 
lication :  "■  "  If,"  he  says,  "  the  Semites  were  already 
settled  in  Northern  Babylonia  (Accad)  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  fourth  thousand  B.C.,  in  possession 
of  the  fully  developed  Shumiro-Accadian  culture 
adopted  by  them, — a  culture,  moreover,  which  ap- 
pears to  have  sprouted  in  Accad  as  a  cutting  from 
Shumir — then  the  latter  must   naturally  be   far,  far 

*  Ztschr.  fiir  Keilschriftforschung,  "  Zur  altbabylonischen  Chrono- 
logic," Heft  I. 


RELIGION  AND  MYTHOLOGY.  365 

older  still,  and  have  existed  in  its  completed  form 
IN  THE  FIFTH  THOUSAND  B.C. — an"  age  to  which  I 
now  unhesitatingly  ascribe  the  South-Babylonian 
incantations."  This  would  give  our  mental  vision 
a  sweep  of  full  six  thousand  years,  a  pretty  re- 
spectable figure !  But  when  we  remember  that 
these  first  known  settlers  of  Shumir  came  from 
somewhere  else,  and  that  they  brought  with  them 
more  than  the  rudiments  of  civilization,  we  are  at 
once  thrown  back  at  least  a  couple  of  thousands  of 
years  more.  For  it  must  have  taken  all  of  that  and 
more  for  men  to  pass  from  a  life  spent  in  caves  and 
hunting  the  wild  beasts  to  a  stage  of  culture  com- 
prising the  invention  of  a  complete  system  of  writ- 
ing, the  knowledge  and  working  of  metals,  even  to 
the  mixing  of  copper  and  tin  into  bronze,  and  an 
expertness  in  agriculture  equal  not  only  to  tilling, 
but  to  draining  land.  If  we  further  pursue  human- 
ity— losing  at  last  all  count  of  time  in  years  or  even 
centuries — back  to  its  original  separation,  to  its  first 
appearance  on  the  earth, — if  we  go  further  still  and 
try  to  think  of  the  ages  upon  ages  during  which 
man  existed  not  at  all,  yet  the  earth  did,  and  was 
beautiful  to  look  upon — {Jiad  there  been  any  to  look 
on  it)  and  good  for  the  creatures  who  had  it  all  to 
themselves — a  dizziness  comes  over  our  senses,  be- 
fore the  infinity  of  time,  and  we  draw  back,  faint 
and  awed,  as  we  do  when  astronomy  launches  us, 
on  a  slender  thread  of  figures,  into  the  infinity  of 
space.  The  six  ages  of  a  thousand  years  each  which 
are  all  that  our  mind  can  firmly  grasp  then  come  to 
seem  to    us  a  very  poor  and   puny  fraction  of  eter- 


366 


THE  STONY  OF  CHALDEA. 


nity,  to  Avhich  we  arc  tempted  to  apply  almost 
scornfully  the  words  spoken  by  the  poet  of  as  many 
years :  "  Six  ages !  six  little  ages  I  six  drops  of 
time !  "  * 


*  Matthew  Arnold,  in  "  Mycerinus  ": 

"  Six  years  !  six  little  years !  six  drops  of  time  !  " 


APPENDIX   TO   CHAPTER   VII. 


Professor  Louis  Dyer  has  devoted  some  time  to  preparing  a 
free  metrical  translation  of  "  Ishtar's  Descent."  Unfortunately, 
owing  to  his  many  occupations,  only  the  first  part  of  the  poem  is  as 
yet  finished.  This  he  most  kindly  has  placed  at  our  disposal,  author- 
izing us  to  present  it  to  our  readers. 

ISHTAR  IN  URUGAL. 

Along  the  gloomy  avenue  of  death 

To  seek  the  dread  abysm  of  Urugal, 

In  everlasting  Dark  whence  none  returns, 

Ishtar,  the  Moon-god's  daughter,  made  resolve, 

And  that  way,  sick  with  sorrow,  turned  her  face. 

A  road  leads  downward,  but  no  road  leads  back 
From  Darkness'  realm.     There  is  Irkalla  queen. 
Named  also  Ninkigal,  mother  of  pains. 
Her  portals  close  forever  on  her  guests 
And  exit  there  is  none,  but  all  who  enter, 
To  daylight  strangers,  and  of  joy  unknown, ' 
Within  her  sunless  gates  restrained  must  stay.. 
And  there  the  only  food  vouchsafed  is  dust,     . 
For  slime  they  live  on,  who  on  earth  have  died. 
Day's  golden  beam  greets  none  and  darkness  reigns 
Where  hurtling  bat-like  forms  of  feathered  men 
Or  human-fashioned  birds  imprisoned  flit. 
Close  and  with  dust  o'erstrewn,  the  dungeon  doors 
Are  held  by  bolts  with  gathering  mould  o'ersealed. 

By  love  distracted,  though  the  queen  of  love, 
Pale  Ishtar  downward  flashed  toward  death's  domain, 
And  swift  approached  these  gates  of  Urugal, 
Then  paused  impatient  at  its  portals  grim : 

367 


368  APPENDIX. 

For  love,  whose  strength  no  earthly  bars  restrain, 

Gives  not  the  key  to  open  Darkness'  Doors. 

By  service  from  all  living  men  made  proud, 

Ishtar  brooked  not  resistance  from  the  dead. 

She  called  the  jailer,  then  to  anger  changed 

The  love  that  sped  her  on  her  breathless  way, 

And  from  her  parted  lips  incontinent 

Swept  speech  that  made  the  unyielding  warder  quail. 

"Quick,  turnkey  of  the  pit!  swing  wide  these  doors, 
And  fling  them  swiftly  open.     Tarry  not ! 
For  I  will  pass,  even  I  will  enter  in. 
Dare  no  denial,  thou,  bar  not  my  way, 
Else  will  I  burst  thy  bolts  and  rend  thy  gates, 
This  lintel  shatter  else  and  wreck  these  doors. 
The  pent-up  dead  I  else  will  loose,  and  lead 
Back  the  departed  to  the  lands  they  left. 
Else  bid  the  famished  dwellers  in  the  pit 
Rise  up  to  live  and  eat  their  fill  once  more. 
Dead  myriads  then  shall  burden  groaning  earth. 
Sore  tasked  without  them  by  her  living  throngs." 

Love's  mistress,  mastered  by  strong  hate. 
The  warder  heard,  and  wondered  first,  then  feared 
The  angered  goddess  Ishtar  what  she  spake, 
Then  answering  said  to  Ishtar's  wrathful  might : 
"  O  princess,  slay  thy  hand  ;  rend  not  the  door, 
But  tarry  here,  while  unto  Ninkigal 
I  go,  and  tell  thy  glorious  name  to  her." 


ISHTAR'S   LAMENT. 

"  Ail  love  from  earthly  life  with  me  departed, 

With  me  to  tarry  in  the  gates  of  death  ; 
hilieaven's  sun  no  warmth  is  longer  hearted. 

And  chilled  shall  cheerless  men  now  draw  slow  breath. 

"  I  left  in  sadness  life  which  I  had  given, 

I  turned  from  gladness  and  I  walked  with  woe, 

Toward  living  death  by  grief  untimely  driven, 

I  search  for  Thammuz  whom  harsh  fate  laid  low. 


APPEXDIX. 

"  The  darkling  pathway  o'er  the  restless  waters 

Of  seven  seas  that  circle  Death's  domain 
I  trod,  and  followed  after  earth's  sad  daughters 

Torn  from  their  loved  ones  and  ne'er  seen  again. 

"  Here  must  I  enter  in,  here  make  my  dwelling 
With  Thammuz  in  the  mansion  of  the  dead, 

Driven  to  Famine's  house  by  love  compelling 
And  hunger  for  the  sight  of  that  dear  head. 

"O'er  husbands  will  I  weep,  whom  death  has  taken. 
Whom  fate  in  manhood's  strength  from  life  has  swept, 

Leaving  on  earth  their  living  wives  forsaken, — 
O'er  them  with  groans  shall  bitter  tears  be  wept. 

"  And  I  will  weep  o'er  wives,  whose  short  day  ended 
Ere  in  glad  offspring  joyed  their  husbands'  eyes  ; 

Snatched  from  loved  arms  they  left  their  lords  untended,- 
O'er  them  shall  tearful  lamentations  rise. 

"  And  I  will  weep  o'er  babes  who  left  no  brothers, 
Young  lives  to  the  ills  of  age  by  hope  opposed, 

The  sons  of  saddened  sires  and  tearful  mothers. 
One  moment's  life  by  death  eternal  closed." 


569 


NINKIGAL'.S  COMMAND  TO  THE  WARDER. 

'■  Leave  thou  this  presence,  slave,  open  the  gate; 
Since  power  is  hers  to  force  an  entrance  here, 
Let  her  come  in  as  come  from  life  the  dead, 
Submissive  to  the  laws  of  Death's  domain. 
Do  unto  her  what  unto  all  thou  doest." 

Want  of  space  bids  us  limit  ourselves  to  these  few  fragments~- 
surely  sufficient  to  make  our  readers  wish  that  Professor  Dyer  miglic 
spare  some  time  to  the  completion  of  his  task. 


INDEX. 


A.  I      of  Babylon,  perhaps  Amraphel, 

I      King  of  Shinar,  226. 
Abel,  killed  by  Cain,  129.  Amorite,  the,  a  tribe  of  Canaan, 

Abraham,    wealthy  and  powerful  |      i33- 

chief,  200  ;  goes  forth  from  Ur,  ,  Amraphel,  see  Amarpal. 

his  victory  over   Khudur-    Ana,    or   Zi-ana—    Heaven,       - 


201 ;   liis  victory  over 
Lagamar,  222-224. 

Accad,  Northern  or  Upper  Chal- 
dea,  145;  meaning  of  the  word, 
ib.  ;  headquarters  of  Semitism, 
204-205. 

Accads,  see  Shumiro-Accads. 

Accadian  language,  see  Shu- 
miro-Accadian. 

Agade,  capital  of  Accad,  205. 

Agglutinative  languages,  mean- 
ing of  the  word,  136-137;  char- 
acteristic of  Turanian  nations, 
ib. ;  spoken  by  the  people  of 
Shumir  and  Accad,  144. 

Agricultural  life,  third  stage  of 
culture,  first  beginning  of  real 
civilization,  122. 

Akki,  the  water-carrier,  see 
Sharrukin  of  Agade. 

Alexander  of  Macedon  conquers 
Babylon,  4  ;  his  soldiers  destroy 
the  dams  on  the  Euphrates,  5. 

Allah,  Arabic  for  "  God,"  see 
Ilu. 

Allat,    queen  of   the  Dead,    327- 

329- 

Altai',  the  great  Siberian  moun- 
tain chain,  146 ;  probable  cra- 
dle of  the  Turanian  race,  147. 

Altaic,  another  name  for  the 
Turanian  or  Yellow  Race,  147. 

Amarpal,  also  Sin-Muballit,  King 


"  Spirit  of  Heaven,"  p.  154. 

Anatu,  goddess,  mother  of  Ish- 
tar,  smites  Eabani  with  death 
and  Izdubar  with  leprosy,  310. 

Anthropomorphism,  meaning  of 
the  word,  355;  definition  and 
causes  of,  355-357- 

Anu,  first  god  of  the  first  Baby- 
lonian Triad,  same  as  Ana, 
240;  one  of  the  "twelve  great 
gods,"  246. 

Anunnaki,  minor  spirits  of  earth, 
154,  250. 

Anunit  (the  Moon),  wife  of  Sha- 
mash,  245. 

Apsu  (the  Abyss),  264. 

Arab,  or  Arallu,  the  Land  of  the 
Dead,  157  ;  its  connection  with 
the  Sacred  Mountain,  276. 

Arallu,  see  Arab. 

Aram,  a  son  of  Shem,  epony- 
mous ancestor  of  the  Aramae- 
ans in  Gen.  x.,  131. 

Arabs,  their  conquest  and  pros- 
perous rule  in  Mesopotamia,  5 ; 
Baghdad,  their  capital,  5  ;  no- 
mads in  Mesopotamia,  S  ;  their 
superstitious  horror  of  the  ruins 
and  sculptures,  1 1 ;  they  take 
the  gigantic  head  for  Nimrod, 
22-24 ;  their  strange  ideas 
about  the  colossal  winged  bulls 


371 


372 


INDEX. 


and  lions  and  their  destination, 
24-25;  their  habit  of  plunder- 
ing ancient  tombs  at  Warka, 
86;  their  conquests  and  high 
culture  in  Asia  and  Africa,  1 18. 

Arbela,  city  of  Assyria,  built  in 
hilly  region,  50. 

Architecture,  Chaldean,  created 
by  local  conditions,  37-39;  As- 
syrian, borrowed  from  Chaldea, 
50. 

Areph-Kasdim,  see  Arphaxad, 
meaning  of  the  word,  200. 

Arphaxad,  eldest  son  of  Shem, 
200. 

Arphakshad,  see  Arphaxad. 

Asshur,  a  son  of  Shem,  epony- 
mous ancestor  of  the  Assyrians 
in  Genesis  X.,  131. 

Asshurbanipal,  King  of  Assyria, 
his  Library,  100-112;  con- 
quers Elam,  destroys  Shushan, 
and  restores  the  statue  of  the 
goddess    Nana  to  Erech,   194- 

195- 

Asshurnazirpal,  King  of  As- 
syria, size  of  hall  in  his  palace 
at  Calah  (Nimrud),  63. 

Assyria,  the  same  as  Upper  Mes- 
opotamia, 7  ;  rise  of,  228. 

Astrology,  meaning  of  the  word, 
106;  a  corruption  of  astronomy, 
234  ;  the  special  study  of  priests, 
ib. 

Astronomy,  the  ancient  Chal- 
deans' proficiency  in,  230  ;  fas- 
cination of,  231  ;  conducive  to 
religious  speculation,  232 ;  de- 
generates into  astrology,  234; 
the  god  Nebo,  the  patron  of, 
242. 


B. 


Babbar,  see  Ud. 

Babel,  same  as  Babylon,  237. 

Bab-el-Mander,  Straits  of,  189. 

Bab-ilil,  Semitic  name  of  Baby- 
lon; meaning  of  the  name, 
225,249. 

Babylonia,  a  part  of  Lower  Mes- 


opotamia, 7 ;  excessive  flat- 
ness of,  9 ;  later  name  for 
"  Shumir  and  Accad  "  and  for 
"  Chaldea,"  237. 

Baghdad,  capital  of  the  Arabs' 
empire  in  Mesopotamia,  5;  its 
decay,  6 ; 

Bassorah,  see  Busrah. 

Bedouins,  robber  tribes  of,  8 ; 
distinctively  a  nomadic  people, 
116-1  iS. 

Bel,  third  god  of  the  first  Baby- 
lonian Triad,  239;  meaning  of 
the  name,  240;  one  of  the 
"  twelve  great  gods,"  246 ;  his 
battle  with  Tiiimat,  288-290. 

Belit,  the  wife  of  Bel,  the  femi- 
nine princijile  of  nature,  244- 
245 ;  one  of  the  "  twelve  great 
gods,"  246. 

Bel-Maruduk,  see  Marduk. 

Herosus,  Babylonian  priest ;  his 
History  of  Chaldea,  128;  his 
version  of  the  legend  of  Oannes, 
184-185;  his  account  of  the 
Chaldean  Cosmogony,  260-261, 
267  ;  his  account  of  the  great 
tower  and  the  confusion  of 
tongues,  292-293;  his  account 
of  the  Deluge,  299-301. 

Birs-Nimrud  or  Birs-i-Nimrud, 
see  Borsippa. 

Books,  not  always  of  paper,  93 ; 
stones  and  bricks  used  as  books, 
97  ;  walls  and  rocks,  ib.,  97-99. 

Borsippa  (Mound  of  liirs-Nim- 
rud),  its  peculiar  shape,  47 ; 
Nebuchadnezzar's  inscription 
found  at,  72 ;  identified  with 
the  Tower  of  Babel,  293. 

Botta  begins  excavations  at 
Koyunjik,  14;  his  disap])oint- 
ment,  15;  his  great  discovery 
at  Khorsabad,  15-16. 

Bricks,  how  men  came  to  make, 
39 ;  sun-dried  or  raw,  and  kiln- 
dried  or  baked,  40 ;  ancient 
bricks  from  the  ruins  used  for 
modern  constructions  ;  trade 
with  ancient  bricks  at  Hillah, 
42. 


INDEX. 


373 


British  Musemn,  Rich's  collec- 
tion presented  to,  14. 

Busrah,  or  Bassorah,  bulls  and 
lions  shipped  to,  down  the 
Tigris,  52. 

Byblos,  ancient  writing  material, 
94. 


Ca-Dimirra  (or  Ka-dimirra),  sec- 
ond name  of  liabylon  ;  meaning 
of  the  name,  216,  249. 

Cain,  his  crime,  banishment,  and 
posterity,  129. 

Calah,  or  Kalah,  one  of  the  As- 
syrian capitals,  the  Larissa  of 
Xenophon,  3. 

Canaan,  son  of  Ham,  eponymous 
ancestor  of  many  nations,  133. 

Canaaniles,  migrations  of,  igo. 

Cement,  various  qualities  of,  44. 

Chaldea,  the  same  as  Lower 
Mesopotamia,  7  ;  alluvial  for- 
mation of,  .37-3S  ;  its  extraordi- 
nary abundance  in  cemeteries, 
78  ;  a  nursery  of  nations,  19S  ; 
more  often  called  by  the  an- 
cients "  Babylonia,"  237. 

Chaldeans,  in  the  sense  of 
"  wise  men  of  the  East,"  astrol- 
oger, magician,  soothsayer, — a 
separate  class  of  the  priesthood, 

254-255- . 

Charm  against  evil  spells,  162. 

Cherub,  Cherubim,  see  Kiriibu. 

China,  possibly  mentioned  in 
Isaiah,  136,  note. 

Chinese  speak  a  monosyllabic 
language,  137  ;  their  genius  and 
its  limitations,  138,  139;  oldest 
national  religion  of,  iSo,  181  ; 
their  "docenal"  and  "sexage- 
simal "  system  of  counting,  230- 

23'- 

Chronology,  vagueness  of  an- 
cient, 193-194;  extravagant 
figures  of,  196-197 ;  difficulty 
of  establishing,  21 1-2 12. 

Chthon,  meaning  of  the  word,  272. 

Chthonic  Powers,  272,  273. 


Chthonic  Myths,  see  Myths. 

Cissians,  see  Kasshi. 

Cities,  building  of,  fourth  stage 
of  culture,  123,  124. 

Classical  Antiquity,  meaning  of 
the  term  ;  too  exclusive  study 
of,  12. 

Coffins,  ancient  Chaldean,  found 
at  Warka :  "jar-coffins,"'  82; 
"  dish-cover  "  coffins,  84  ;  "  slip- 
per-shaped "  coffin  (compara- 
tively modern),  84-86. 

Conjuring,  against  demons  and 
sorcerers,  15S-159;  admitted 
into  the  later  reformed  religion, 
236. 

Conjurors,  admitted  into  the 
Babylonian  priesthood,  250. 

Cossasans,  see  Kasshi. 

Cosmogonic  Myths,  see  Myths. 

Cosmogony,  meaning  of  the 
word,  259;  Chaldean,  imparted 
by  Berosus,  260-261  ;  original 
tablets  discovered  by  Geo. 
Smith,  261-263  ;  their  contents, 
264  and  ff. ;  Berosus  again,  267. 

Cosmos,  meaning  of  the  word, 
272. 

Cuneiform  writing,  shape  and 
specimen  of,  10 ;  introduced 
into  Chaldea  by  the  Shumiro- 
Accads,  145. 

Cush,  or  Kush,  eldest  son  of 
Ham,  186;  probable  early  mi- 
grations of,  188 ;  ancient  name 
of  Ethiopia,  189. 

Cushites,  colonization  of  Tura- 
nian Chaldea  by,  192. 

Cylinders:  seal  cylinders  in 
hard  stones,  112;  foundation- 
cylinders,  112-114;  seal-cylin- 
ders worn  as  talismans,  166; 
Babylonian  cylinder,  supposed 
to  represent  the  Temptation 
and  Fall,  266. 

D. 

Damkina,  goddess,  wife  of  Ea, 
mother  of  Meridug,  160. 

Decoration  :  of  palaces,  58-62 ; 
of  walls  at  Warka,  87-88. 


374 


INDEX. 


Delitzsch,  F'riedrich,  eminent  As- 
syriologist,  favors  the  Semitic 
theory,  i86. 

Deluge,  Herosus'  account  of,  299 
-301  ;  cuneiform  account,  in 
the  nth  tablet  of  the  Izdubar 
Epic,  314-317- 

Demon  of  the  South-West  Wind, 
168. 

Diseases  conceived  as  demons, 
163. 

Divination,  a  branch  of  Chal- 
dean "science,"  in  what  it  con- 
sists, 251-252;  collection  of 
texts  on,  in  one  hundred  tablets, 
252-253;     specimens   of,    253- 

254- 

Draining  of  palace  mounds,  70; 
of  sepulchral  mounds  at  Warka, 
86-87. 

Dumuzi,  the  husband  of  the  god- 
dess Ishtar,  303;  the  hero  of  a 
solar  Myth,  323-326. 

Dur-Sharnikin,  (see  Khorsabad), 
built  in  hilly  region,  50. 


Ea,  sometimes  Zi-ki-a,  the  Spirit 
of  the  Earth  and  Waters, 
154;  protector  against  evil  spir- 
its and  men,  160;  his  chief 
sanctuary  at  Eridhu,  215;  sec- 
ond god  of  the  first  Babylonian 
Triad,  239 ;  his  attributions, 
240 ;  one  of  the  "  twelve  great 
gods,"    246. 

Eabani,  the  seer,  304  ;  invited  by 
Izdubar,  304-305 ;  becomes 
Izdubar's  friend,  307 ;  van- 
quishes with  him  the  Elamite  ty- 
rant Khumbaba,  308 ;  smitten 
by  Ishtar  and  Anatu,  310 ; 
restored  to  life  by  the  gods,  314. 

E-Babbara,  "  House  of  the  Sun," 
215,  248. 

Eber,  see  Heber. 

El,  see  Ilu. 

Elam,  kingdom  of,  conquered 
by  Asshurbanipal,  194;  mean- 
ing of  the  name,  220. 


Elamite     conquest    of     Chaldea, 

219-221,  224-225. 
Elohim,      one      of     the    Hebrew 

names  for  (lod,  a  plural  of    El, 

354.     See  Ilu. 
Emanations,     theory     of    divine, 

238-239 ;  meaning  of  the  word, 

239- 
Enoch,  son  of  Cain,  129. 
Enoch,     the    first    city,   built   by 

Cain,  129, 
Epic  Poems,  or  Epics,  298-299. 
Epic-Chalda;an,  oldest  known   in 

the  world,  299;  its  division  into 

tablets,  302. 
Eponym,  meaning    of   the   word, 

133-  .      .    ^ 

Eponymous  genealogies  m  Gene- 
sis X.,  132-134. 

Epos,  national,  meaning  of  the 
word,  299. 

Erech  (now  Mound  of  Warka), 
oldest  name  Urukh,  immense 
burying-grounds  around,  So-82  ; 
plundered  by  Khudur-Nankhun- 
di,  king  of  Elam,  195;  library 
of,  209, 

Eri-Aku  (Arioch  of  Ellassar), 
Elamite  king  of  Larsam,  226. 

Eridhu,  the  most  ancient  city  of 
Shuniir,  215;  specially  sacred 
to  £a,  215. 

Ethiopians,  see  Cush. 

E.xcavations,  how  carried  on, 
30-34- 


Fergusson,  Jas.,  English  explorer 
and  writer  on  art  subjects,  56. 

Finns,  a  nation  of  Turanian  stock, 
138. 

Flood,  or  Deluge,  possibly  not 
universal,  128-129. 


Gan-Dunyash,  or  Kar-Dunyash, 
most  ancient  name  of  Baby- 
lonia proper,  286. 

Genesis,  first  book  of  the  Penta- 


INDEX. 


375 


tench,  127-129;  Chapter  X.  of, 

130-142. 
Gibil,  Fire,    173;    hymn  to,    16; 

his  friendliness,    i'74 ;    invoked 

to   prosper    the  fabrication    of 

bronze,  16. 
Gisdhubar,  see  Izdubar. 
Gudea, /rt/t'j/ of  Sirburla,  214. 

H. 

Ham,  second  son  of  Noah,  130  ; 
meaning  of  the  name,  186. 

Hammurabi,  king  of  Babylon  and 
all  Chaldea,  226;  his  long  and 
glorious  reign,  ib.;  his  public 
works  and  the  "  Royal  Canal," 
227. 

Harimtu  ("  Persuasion  "),  one  of 
the     handmaidens    of      Ishtar, 

305- 

Hasisadra,  same  as  Xisuthros, 
303 ;  gives  Izdubar  an  account 
of  the  great  Flood,  314-317. 

Heber,  a  descendant  of  Shem, 
eponymous  ancestor  of  the  He- 
brews in  Genesis  X.,  131,  222. 

Heroes,  296-298. 

Heroic  Ages,  299. 

Heroic  Myths,  see  Myths. 

Hillah,  built  of  bricks  from  the 
palace  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  cai- 
ries  on  trade  with  ancient  bricks, 

42. 

Himalaya  Mountains,  1S8. 

Hindu-'Cush  (or  Kush)  Moun- 
tains, 188. 

Hit,  modern  Is,  on  the  Euphrates, 
springs  of  bitumen  at,  44. 

Hivite,    the,  a  tribe    of    Canaan, 

'^3-    .  .  ,^         . 

Hungarians,  a  nation  of  Turanian 

stock,  138. 

I. 

Idpa,  the  Demon  of  Fever,  1 56. 
Igigi,   three     hundred,  spirits    of 

heaven,  250. 
Ilu,   or     El,     .Semitic     name    for 

"god,"  232. 
Im,  or  Mermer,  "  Wind,"  154. 


India,  1S8. 

Indus,  the  great  river  of  India, 
188. 

Intercalary  months,  introduced 
by  the  Chaldeans  to  correct  the 
reckoning  of  their  year,  230. 

Is,  see  Hit. 

Ishtar,  the  goddess  of  the  plan- 
et Venus,  242  ;  the  Warrior- 
Queen  and  Queen  of  Love,  245  ; 
one  of  the  "  twelve  great  gods," 
246;  offers  her  love  to  Izdubar, 
308 ;  is  rejected  and  sends  a 
monstrous  bull  against  him, 
309  ;  causes  Eabani's  death  and 
Izdubar's  illness,  310;  descent 
of,  into  the  land  of  shades,  326- 

33°- 
Izdubar,  the  hero  of  the  great 
Chaldean  Epic,  303  ;  his_^dream 
at  Erech,  304;  invites  Eabani, 
304-305 ;  vanquishes  with  his 
help  Khumbaba,  the  Elamite 
tyrant  of  Erech,  308 ,  offends 
Ishtar,  308 ;  vanquishes  the 
divine  Bull,  with  Eabani's 
help,  309 ;  is  smitten  with  lep- 
rosy, 310 ;  travels  to  "  the  mouth 
of  the  great  rivers  "  to  consult 
his  immortal  ancestor  Hasisa- 
dra, 310-313;  is  purified  and 
healed,  313;  returns  to  Erech; 
his  lament  over  Eabani's  death, 
313-314;  solar  character  of  the 
Epic,  31S-322. 

J- 

Jabal  and  Jubal,  sons  of  Lamech, 

descendants  of  Cain,  129. 
Japheth,  third  son  of  Noah,  130. 
Javan,    a    son    of  Jaj^het,    epony 

mous    ancestor   of    the    Ionian 

Greeks,  134. 
"  Jonah's    Mound,"    see    Nebbi- 

Yunus. 
Jubal,  see  Jabal  and  Jubal. 


K. 
Ka-Dingirra,  see  Ca-Dimirra. 
Kar-Dunyash,  see    Gan-Dunyash, 


17^ 


IXDEX. 


Kasl>u,  the  Chaldean  double 
hour,  230. 

Kasr,  Mound  of,  ruins  of  the  pal- 
ace of  Nebuchadnezzar. 

Kasshi  ((Josa;an.s  or  Cissians), 
conquer  Chaldea,  22S. 

Kerbela  and  Nedjif,  goal  of 
pilgrim-caravans  from  Persia, 
78. 

Kerubim,  see  Kirubu. 

Khorsabad,  Mound  of,  Botta's 
excavations  and  brilliant  dis- 
covery at,  15-16. 

Khudur-Laganiar  (Chedorlao- 
mer),  king  of  Elam  and  Chal- 
dea, his  conquests,  221  ;  plun- 
ders Sodom  and  (jomorrah 
with  his  allies,  222  ;  is  overtaken 
liy  Abraham  and  routed,  223  ; 
iiis  probable  date,  224. 

Khudur-Nankhundi,  king  of 
Elam,  invades  Chaldea  and 
carries  the  statue  of  the  god- 
dess Nana  away  from  Erech, 
195. 

Khumbaba,  the  I'Janiite  tyrant  of 
Erech  vanquished  by  Izdubar 
and  Eabani,  308. 

Kirubu,  name  of  the  Winged 
]!iills,  164. 

Kovunjik,  Mound  of  Xenophon's 
Mcspila,  14;  I'otta's  unsuccess- 
ful exploration  of,  15;  valuable 
find  of  small  articles  in  a  cham- 
ber at,  in  the  palace  of  Sen- 
nacherib, 34. 

Kurds,  nomadic  tribes  of,  S. 


Lamech,  fifth  descendant  of  Cain, 
129. 

f>arissa,  ruins  of  ancient  Calah, 
seen  by  Xcnophon,  3. 

Larsam  (now  Senkereh),  city  of 
Shumir,  215. 

Eavard  meets  Dotta  at  Mossul  in 
1S42,  17;  undertakes  the  explo- 
ration of  Nimrud,  17-18  ;  his 
work  and  life  in  the  East,  19- 
32  ;  discovers  the  Royal  Library 
at  Nineveh  (Koyunjik),  100. 


Ixbanon  Mountains,  190. 

Lenormant,  F'rancois,  eminent 
French  Orientalist  ;  his  work 
on  the  religion  of  the  Shumiro- 
Accads,  152-3;  favors  the  Cush- 
ite  theory,  186. 

Library  of  Asshurbanipal  in 
his  palace  at  Nineveh  (Koyun- 
jik) ;  discovered  by  Layard,  ico; 
re-opened  by  Ceorge  Smith, 
103;  contents  and  importance 
of,  for  modern  scholarship,  106- 
109;  of  Erech,  209. 

Loftus,  English  explorer;  his 
visit  to  Warka  in  1854-5,  80-82  ; 
procures  slii>i5cr-shai)ed  coffins 
for  the  liritish  Museum,  36. 

Louvre,  Assyrian  Collection  at 
the,  17  ;  "  Sarzec  collection  " 
added,  89. 

Louvre,  Armenian  contrivance 
for  lighting  houses,  68. 


M. 


Madai,  a  son  of  Japhet,  epony- 
mous ancestor   of   the    Medes, 

'35-. 
Magician,     derivation     of       the 

word,  255. 
Marad,  ancient  city  of   Chaldea, 

303- 

Marduk,  or  Maruduk  (Hebrew 
Merodach),  god  of  the  planet 
Jupiter,  24 1  ;  one  of  the  "  twelve 
great  gods,"  246  ;  special  patron 
of  Babylon,  249. 

Maskim,   the    seven,  evil    spirits, 

154  ;    incantation    against    the, 

155  ;  the  same,  poetical  version, 
182. 

Mas])ero,  G.,  eminent  French  Ori- 
entalist, 197. 

Medes,  Xenophon's  erroneous 
account  of,  3-4  ;  mentioned  un- 
der the  name  of  Madai  in  Gene- 
sis X..  135. 

Media,  divided  from  Assyria  by 
the  Zagros  chain,  50. 

Menant,  Joachim,  French  As- 
syriologist ;  his   little  book  on 


INDEX. 


177 


the  Roval  Library  at  Nineveh, 
105. 
Meridug,  son   of   Ea,  the  Media- 
tor, i6o;  his  dialogues  with  Ea, 
161-162. 
Mermer,  see  Im. 
Merodach,  see  Marduk. 
Mesopotamia,    meaning    of     the 
name,  5  ;  peculiar  formation  of, 
6;  division  of,  into  Upper  and 
Lower,  7. 

Mespila,  ruins  of  Nineveh  seen 
by  Xenoplion,  3  ;  now  Mound 
of  Koyunjik,  14. 

Migrations  of  tribes,  nations, 
races ;  probable  first  causes  of 
prehistoric  migrations,  119; 
caused  by  invasions  and  con- 
quests, 125;  of  the  Turanian 
races,  146-147  ;  of  the  Cushites, 
188  ;  of  the  Canaanites,    igo. 

Mizraim  ("the  Egyptians"),  a 
son  of  Ham,  eponymous  ances- 
tor of  the  Egyptians,  133;  op- 
posed to  Cush,  1 89. 

Monosyllabic  languages — Chi- 
nese, 136-137. 

Monotheism,  meaning  of  the 
word,  238 ;  as  conceived  bv 
the  Hebrews,  344-345. 

Mossul,  the  residence  of  a  Turk- 
ish Pasha  ;  origin  of  the  name, 
6  ;  the  wicked  Pasha  of,  20-22. 

Mound-Builders,  their  tombs, 
job  jj'-*- 

Mounds,  their  appearance,  9- 
10 ;  their  contents,  i  r  ;  forma- 
tion of,  72  ;  their  usefulness  in 
protecting  the  ruins  and  works 
of  art,  74  ;  sepulchral  mounds 
at  Warka,  79-87. 

Mugheir,  see  Ur. 

Mul-ge,  "  Lord  of  the  Abyss."  154. 

Mummu-Tiamat  (the  "  Billowy 
Sea"),  264;  her  hostility  to  the 
gods,  2S8 ;  her  fight  with  Bel, 
28S-290. 

Mythology,  definition  of,  331 ; 
distinction  from  Religion,  331- 
334- 

Myths,    meaning    of     the    word,  I 


294  ;  Cosmogonic,  294  ;  Heroic, 
207-2985  Solar,  322,339-340; 
Chthonic,  330,  340-341. 


N. 


Nabonidus,  last  king  of  Ba1)ylon, 
discovers  Naram-sin's  cylinder, 
213;  discovers  Hammurabi's 
cylinder  at  Larsam,  218-219. 

Namtar,  the  Demon  of  Pesti- 
lence, 156,  157;  incantation 
against,  167  ;  Minister  of  Allat, 
Queen  of  the  Dead,  328,  329. 

Nana,  Chaldean  goddess,  her 
statue  restored  by  Asshurbani- 
pal,  195,  343-344;  wife  of  Ann, 

245-    . 

Nannar,  see  Uru-Ki. 

Naram-Sin  succeeds  his  father, 
Sargon  of  Agade,  210;  his  cyl- 
inder discovered  by  Nabonidus, 
213. 

Nations,  gradual  formation  of, 
125-126. 

Nebbi-Yunus,  Mound  of,  its  size, 
49. 

Nebo,  or  Nabu,  the  god  of  the 
planet  Mercury,  242 ;  one  of 
the  "  twelve  great  gods,"  246. 

Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Baby- 
lon ;  his  palace,  now  IMound  of 
Kasr,  42 ;  his  inscription  of 
Borsippa,  72. 

Nedjif,  see  Kerbela. 

Nergal,  the  god  of  the  planet 
Mars,  and  of  War,  242 ;  one  of 
the  "  twelve  great  gods,"  246. 

Niffer,  see  Nippur. 

Nimrod,  dams  on  the  Euphrates 
attributed  to,  by  the  Arabs,  5; 
his  name  i^reserved,  and  many 
ruins  called  by  it,  11  ;  gigantic 
head  declared  by  the  Arabs  to 
be  the  head  of,  22-24. 

Nimrud,  Mound  of,  Layard  un- 
dertakes the  exploration  of,  17. 

Nin-dar,  the  nightly  sun,  175. 

Nineveh,  greatness  and  utter  de- 
struction of,  I ;  ruins  of,  seen 
by   Xenophon,    called    Ijy   him 


378 


IiYDEX. 


Mespila,    3 ;    site   of,    opposite 

Mossul,  n. 
Nin-gc,  see  Nin-ki-gal.' 
Ninib,  or  Nincb,  the   god  of  the 

planet   Saturn,  241  ;  one  of  the 

"  twelve  great  gods,"  246. 
Nin-ki-gal,  or  ISin-ge,  "the  Lady 

of  the  Abyss,"  157. 
Nippur     (now     Niffer),     city    of 

Accad,  216. 
Nizir,    Mount,    the   mountain    on 

which    Hasisadra's   ship   stood 

still,  301 ;  land  and  Mount,  316 
Noah  and  his  three  sons,  130. 
Nod,  land  of   ("Land  of  Exile," 

or  "of  Wanderings"),  129. 
Nomads,    meaning   of   the   word, 

and  causes  of  nomadic  life  in 

modern  times,  i  iS. 

O. 

Oanncs,    legend    of,  told   by  Be- 

rosus,  1S5. 
Oasis,  meaning  of  the  word,  1 18. 


Palaces,  their  imposing  aspect, 
54;  palace  of  Sennacherib  re- 
stored by  Fergusson,  56;  orna- 
mentation of  palaces,  58  ; 
winged  Bulls  and  Lions  at  gate- 
ways of,  58 ;  sculptured  slabs 
along  the  walls  of,  58-60 ; 
painted  tiles  used  for  the  friezes 
of,  60-62  ;  proportions  of  halls, 
63;  roofing  of,  62-66;  lighting 
of,  66-68. 

Papyrus,  ancient  writing  mate- 
rial, 94. 

Paradise,  Chaldean  legend  of, 
see  Sacred  Tree  and  Ziggurat. 
Meaning  of  the  word,  277. 

Parallel  between  the  Book  of 
Genesis  and  the  Chaldean  le- 
gends, 350-360. 

Pastoral  life,  second  stage  of 
culture,  120;  necessarily  no- 
madic, 121. 

Pjtesis,    meaning    of    the    word. 


203 ;  first  form  of  royalty  in 
Chaldean  cities,  ib.,  235. 

Patriarchal  authority,  first  form 
of  government,  123;  the  tribe, 
or  enlarged  family,  first  form 
of  the  State,  123. 

Penitential      I'salms,     Chaldean, 

177-179- 

Persian  Gulf,  flatness  and  marshi- 
ness of  the  region  around,  7  ; 
reached  further  inland  than 
now,  201. 

Persians,  rule  in  Asia,  2 ;  the 
war  between  two  royal  brothers, 
2 ;  Persian  monarchy  con- 
quered by  Alexander,  4 ;  not 
named  in  Genesis  X.,  134. 

Platforms,  artificial,  46-49. 

Polytheism,  meaning  of  the  word, 
237;  tendency  to,  of  the  He- 
brews, combated  by  their  lead- 
ers, 345-350-       , 

Priesthood,  Chaldean,  causes  of 
its  power  and  influence,  233- 
234- 

R. 

Races,  Nations,  and  Tribes  rep- 
resented in  antiquity  under 
the  name  of  a  man,  an  ancestor, 
130-134;  black  race  and  yel- 
low race  omitted  from  the  list 
in  Genesis  X.,  134-142;  prob- 
able reasons  for  the  omission, 
135,  140. 

Raman,  third  god  of  the  second 
Babylonian  Triad,  his  attribu- 
tions, 240-241 ;  one  of  the 
"  twelve  great  gods,"  246. 

Rassam,  Hormuzd,  explorer,  247, 
248. 

Rawlinson,  Sir  Henry,  his  work 
at  the  British  Museum,  152. 

Religion  of  the  Shumiro-Accads 
the  most  primitive  in  the  world, 
148;  characteristics  of  Tura- 
nian religions,  iSo,  181  ;  defini- 
tion of,  as  distinguished  from 
]\rvthology,  331-334- 

Religiosity,    distinctively    human 


INDEX. 


379 


characteristic,  14S;  its  awaken- 
ing and  development,   149-152. 
Rich,    the   first  explorer,   13;  his 
disappointment  at  Mossul,  14. 


Sabatture,  the  Babylonian  and 
Assyrian  "  Sabbath,"  256. 

Sabeism,  the  worship  of  the 
heavenly  bodies,  a  Semitic  form 
of  religion,  232 ;  fostered  by  a 
pastoral  and  nomadic  life,  ib. 

Sabitu,  one  of  the  maidens  in 
the  magic  grove,  311. 

Sacred  Tree,  sacredness  of  the 
Symbol,  268 ;  its  conventional 
appearance  on  sculptures  and 
cylinders,  26S-270;  its  signifi- 
cation, 272-274;  its  connection 
with  the  legend  of  Paradise, 
274-276. 

Sarzec,  E.  de,  French  explorer; 
his  great  find  at  Tell-Loh,  88- 
90;  statues  found  by  him,  214. 

Scorpion-men,  the  Warders  of 
the  Sun,  311. 

Schrader,  Eberhard,  eminent  As- 
syriologist,  favors  the  Semitic 
theory,  186. 

Semites  (more  correctly  She- 
mites),  one  of  the  three  great 
races  given  in  Genesis  X.; 
named  from  its  eponymous  an- 
cestor, Shem,  131. 

Semitic  language,  199;  culture, 
the  beginning  of  historical 
times  in  Chaldea,  202,  203. 

Sennacherib,  king  of  Assyria, 
his  palace  at  Koyunjik,  34 ; 
Fergusson's  restoration  of  his 
palace,  56 ;  his  "  Will "  in  the 
Library  of  Nineveh,  108,  109. 

Senkereh,  see  Larsam. 

Sepharvaim,  see  Sippar. 

Seth  (more  correctly  Sheth),  third 
son  of  Adam. 

Shamash,  the  Sun-god,  second 
god  of  the  Second  Babylonian 
Triad,  240 ;  one  of  the  "  twelve 


great  gods,"  246;  his  temple 
at  Sippar  discovered  by  H. 
Rassam,  247,  248. 

Shamhatu  ("Grace"),  one  of 
the  handmaidens  of  Ishtar,  305. 

Sharrukin  of  Agade  (Sargon 
I.),  205;  legend  about  his 
birth,  206;  his  glorious  reign, 
206 ;  his  religious  reform  and 
literary  labors,  207,  208 ;  prob- 
able founder  of  the  library  at 
Erech,  209 ;  date  of,  lately  dis- 
covered, 213. 

Shem,  eldest  son  of  Noah,  130; 
meaning  of  the  name,  198. 

Shinar,  or  Shinear,  geographical 
position  of,  127. 

Shumir,  Southern  or  Lower  Chal- 
dea, 145. 

Shumir  and  Accad,  oldest  name 
for  Chaldea,  143,  144. 

Shumiro-Accadian,  oldest  lan- 
guage of  Chaldea,  108;  Agglu- 
tinative, 145. 

Shumiro-Accads,  oldest  popula- 
tion of  Chaldea,  of  Turanian 
race,  144 ;  their  language  agglu- 
tinative, 145;  introduce  into 
Chaldea  cuneiform  writing, 
metallurgy  and  irrigation,  ib.; 
their  probable  migration,  146; 
their  theory  of  the  world,  153. 

Shushan  (Susa),  capital  of  Elam, 
destroyed  by  Asshurbanipal, 
194. 

Siddim,  battle  in  the  vale  of,  221, 

Sidon,  a  Phoenician  city,  meaning 
of  the  name,  133;  the  "first- 
born "  son  of  Canaan,  epony- 
mous ancestor  of  the  city  in 
Genesis  X.,  ib. 

Siduri,  one  of  the  maidens  in  the 
magic  grove,  311. 

Sin,  the  Moon-god,  first  god  of 
the  Second  Babylonian  Triad, 
240 ;  one  of  the  "  twelve  great 
gods,"  246;  attacked  by  the 
seven  rebellious  spirits,  291. 

Sin-Muballit,  see  Amarpal. 


38o 


INDEX. 


Sippar,  sister  city  of  Agade,  205 ; 
Temple  of  Shamasli  at,  exca- 
vated by  II.  Rassam,  247,  248. 

Sir-burla  (also  Sir-gulla,  or  Sir- 
tella,  or  Zirbah),  ancient  city 
of  Chaldea,  now  Mound  of 
Tell-Loh ;  discoveries  at,  by 
Sarzec,  8S-90. 

Sir-gulla,  see  Sir-burla. 

Smith,  George,  Knglish  ex- 
plorer ;  his  work  at  the  I'ritish 
Museum,  102;  his  c.vpeciitions 
to  Nineveh,  103;  his  success, 
and  his  death,  104;  his  discov- 
ery of  the  Deluge  Tablets,  301. 

Sorcerers  believed  in,  157. 

Spirits,  belief  in  good  and  evil, 
the  first  beginning  of  religion, 
150;  elementary,  in  the  ]irimi- 
tive  Shuniiro-Accadian  religion, 
153-155;  evil,  155-157;  allowed 
an  inferior  place  in  the  later  re- 
formed religion,  236,  250 ;  re- 
bellion of  the  seven  evil,  their 
attack  against  the  Moon-god, 
290,  291. 

Statues  found  at  Tell-Loh,  SS, 
214. 

Style,  ancient  writing  instrument, 

94,  109- 
Synchronism,     meaning     of      the 
word,  212. 


Tablets,  in  baked  or  unbaked 
clay,  used  as  books,  109;  their 
shapes  and  sizes,  109 ;  mode 
of  writing  on,  109-110;  bak- 
ing of,  no;  great  numbers  of, 
deposited  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum, 110-112;  Chaldean  tab- 
lets in  clay  cases,  112;  tablets 
found  under  the  foundation 
stone  at  Khorsabad,  113,  114; 
"  Shamash  tablet,"  248. 

Talismans,  worn  on  the  person 
or  placed  in  buildings,  164. 

Tammuz,  see  Dumuzi. 

Taurus  Mountains,  190. 

Tell-Loh  (also  Tello),  see  Sir- 
burla. 


Temples  of  Ka  and  Meridug  at 
I'2ridhu,  246 ;  of  the  Moon-god 
at  Ur,  ib.;  of  Anu  and  Nana 
at  Erech,  ib.;  of  Shamash  and 
Anunit  at  .Sippar  and  Agade, 
247  ;  of  ISel  Maruduk  at  15aby- 
lon  and  Jiorsipjia,  249. 

Theocracv,  meaning  of  the  word, 

^35- 

I  lamat,  see  Mummu-Tiamat. 

Tin-tir-ki,  oldest  name  of  Baby- 
lon, meaning  of  the  name,  216. 

Triads  in  Babylonian  religion, 
and  meaning  of  the  word,  239- 
240. 

Tubalcain,  son  of  I.amech,  de- 
scendant of  Cain,  the  inventor 
of  metallurgy,  129. 

Turanians,  collective  name  for 
the  whole  \'cllow  Race,  \}f^\ 
origin  of  the  name,  ib.;  the  lim- 
itations of  their  genius,  136- 
139;  their  imperfect  forms  of 
speech,  monosyllabic  and  agglu- 
tinative, 136,  137  ;  "  the  oldest 
of  men,"  137  ;  everywhere  jire- 
cede  the  white  races,  138; 
omitted  in  Genesis  X.,  135, 
139;  possibly  represent  the 
discarded  Cainites  or  jiosteritv 
of  Cain,  140-142;  their  tradi- 
tion of  a  Paradise  in  the  Altai'. 
147;  characteristics  of  Tura- 
nian religions,  180-181. 

Turks,  their  misrule  in  Mesopo- 
tamia, 5-6;  greed  and  oppres- 
siveness of  their  officials,  7-8 ; 
one  of  the  i)rinci])al  modern 
representatives  of  the  Turanian 
race,  136. 


U. 


Ud,  or  Babbar,  the  midday  Sun, 
171  ;  hymns  to,  171,  172. 

Uddusunamir,  phantom  created 
bv  Ea,  and  sent  to  Allat,  to 
rescue  Ishtar,  32S,  329. 

Ur  (Mound  of  Mugheir),  con- 
struction of  its  platform,  46; 
earliest  known  capital  of   Shu- 


INDEX. 


381 


inir,  maritime  and  commercial, 
200;  Terah  and  Abraham  go 
forth  from,  201. 

Ur-ea,  king  of  Ur,  215;  his  build- 
ings, 210-218;  his  signet  cylin- 
der, 218. 

Jrubel,  the  ferryman  on  the 
Waters  of  Death,  311  ;  purifies 
Izdubar  and  leturns  with  him 
to  Erech,  313. 

Urukh,  see  Erech. 

Uru-ki,  or  Nannar,  the  Shumiro- 
Accadian  Moon-god,  240. 

V. 

Vaults,  of  drains,  70;  sepulchral, 
at  Warka,  83,  84. 

W. 

Warka,  see  Erech 

X. 

Xenophon  leads  the  Retreat  of 
the  Ten  Thousand,  2  ;  passes  by 
the  ruins  of  Calah  and  Nineveh, 
which  he  calls  Larissa  and 
Mespila,  3. 

Xisuthros,  the  king  of,  Berosus' 
Deluge-narrative,  300.  See 
Hasisadra. 


!  V. 

1 

I  Yahveh,     the     correct     form     of 

I      "Jehovah,"    one   of     the     lle- 

I      brew  names  for  God,  354. 

I  ^- 

Zab,  river,  tributary  of  the  Tigris, 

!      "7- 

i  Zagros,    mountain    range    of,   di- 
j      vides  Assyria  from  Media,  50; 
stone    quarried    in,    and    trans- 
ported down  the  Zab,  50,  51. 
Zaiclu,    the     huntsman,    sent     to 

Eabani,  305. 
Zi-ana,  see  Ana. 

Ziggurats,  their  peculiar  shape 
and  uses,  48 ;  used  as  observa- 
tories attached  to  temples,  234; 
meaning  of  the  word,  278  ;  their 
connection  with  the  legend  of 
Paradise,  27S-2S0;  their  singu- 
lar orientation  and  its  causes, 
2S4-286  ;  Ziggurat  of  Birs-Nim- 
rud  (Borsippa),  280-283;  iden- 
tified with  the  Tower  of  Babel, 

.293- 

Zi-ki-a,  see  Ea. 

Zirlab,  see  Sir-burla. 

Zodiac,  twelve  signs  of,  familiar 
to  the  Chaldeans,  230;  signs  of, 
established  by  Anu,  265;  rep- 
resented in  the  twelve  books 
of  the  Izdubar  Epic,  318-321. 


fc^^^ 


The  Story  of  the   Nations. 


Messrs.  G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS  take  pleasure  in 
announcing  that  they  have  in  course  of  publication  a 
series  of  historical  studies,  intended  to  present  in  a 
graphic  manner  the  stories  of  the  different  nations  that 
have  attained  prominence  in  history. 

In  the  story  form  the  current  of  each  national  life  will 
be  distinctly  indicated,  and  its  picturesque  and  noteworthy 
periods  and  episodes  will  be  presented  for  the  reader  in 
their  philosophical  relation  to  each  other  as  well  as  to 
universal  history. 

It  is  the  plan  of  the  writers  of  the  different  volumes 
to  enter  into  the  real  life  of  the  peoples,  and  to  bring 
them  before  the  reader  as  they  actually  lived,  labored,  and 
struggled — as  they  studied  and  wrote,  and  as  they  amused 
themselves.  In  carrying  out  this  plan,  the  myths,  with 
which  the  history  of  all  lands  begins,  will  not  be  over- 
looked, though  these  will  be  carefully  distinguished  from 
the  actual  history,  so  far  as  the  labors  of  the  accepted 
historical  authorities  have  resulted  in  definite  conclusions. 

The  subjects  of  the  different  volumes  will  be  planned 
to  cover  connecting  and,  as  far  as  possible,  consecutive 
epochs  or  periods,  so  that  the  set  when  completed  will 
present  in  a  comprehensive  narrative  the  chief  events  in 
the  great  Story  OF  THE  NATIONS ;  but  it  will,  of  course, 
not  always  prove  practicable  to  issue  the  several  volumes 
in  their  chronological  order. 

The  "  Stories  "  are  printed  in  good  readable  type,  and 
in  handsome  i2mo  form.  They  are  adequately  illustrated 
and  furnished  with  maps  and  indexes.  They  are  sold 
separately  at  a  price  of  $1.50  each. 


The  following  is  a  partial  list  of  the  subjects  thus  far 
determined  upon  : 

THE  STORY  OF  EARLY  EGYPT.     Prof.  Georok  Rawlinso.v. 
*CIIALDEA.     Z.  Ragozin. 
*GREECE.     Prof.  James  A.  Harriso.v, 

Washington  and  Lee  University. 
*ROME.     Arthur  CWi.man. 
*THE  JEWS.     Prof.  Jamks  K.  Hosmer, 

Washington  University  of  St.  Louis. 
*CARTHAGE.     Prof.  Aurkd  J.  CiiikCH, 

University  College,  London. 

BYZANTIUM. 

THE  GOTHS.     Henry  Bradley. 

THE  NORMANS.     Sarah  O.  Jkwett. 

PERSL\.     S.  G.  W.  Be.njami.n. 
*SPAIN.     Rev.  E.  E.  and  Slsan  Hale. 
*GERMANY.     S.  Baklnc;-Goild. 

THE  ITALIAN  REPUBLICS. 

HOLLAND.     Prof.  C.  E.  Thorold  Rogers. 
*NORWAY.      Hjal.mar  H.  Boyesen. 

THE  MOORS  IN  SPAIN.     Stanley  Lane-Poole. 
*HUNGARY.     Prof.  A.  VAmb£ry. 

THE  ITALIAN  KINGDOM.     W.  L.  Alden. 

EARLY  FRANCE.     Prof.  Glstave  Masson. 

ALEXANDER'S  E^^'IRE.     Prof.  J.  P.  Mahafey. 

THE  HANSE  TOWNS.     Helen  Zlmmern. 

ASSYRIA.     Z.  Ragozin. 
*THE  SARACENS.     Arthur  Oilman. 

TURKEY.     Stanley  Lane-Poole. 

PORTUGAL.     11.  Morse  Stephens. 

MEXICO.     Sus.an  Hale 

IRELAND.     Hon.  Emily  Lawless. 

PHCENICIA. 

SWITZERLAND. 

RUSSIA. 

WALES. 

SCOTLAND. 

*  (The  volumes  starred  are  now  ready,  September,  iS86.) 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

New  York  London 

27  and  29  WEST  twentv-third  street  27  king  william  Street,  strand 


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.;'  <C- ....  ../■    ^    ^ 


G.  P.  Putnam's  sons,  new  york  and  London. 


